I'm Ready For Some Football

For me, writing has always been my passion.

Sometimes, I have been paid to write. Other times, I have been paid to help others write better. Most of the time, I guess, my writing has been for my personal benefit.

It's my passion, though. It is what has always given meaning to my existence — whether I have been paid for it or not — and it is why I have gravitated to blogging. In blogs, I can devote my passion for writing to my passion for other things.

My readers know that I also write blogs on other subjects — but, even with three blogs, I don't always write of the things about which I am truly passionate.

For instance ...

I am a football fan, and I have been a Green Bay Packers fan since I was a child. You would have thought that I would write post after post about the Packers last season. They did win the Super Bowl, after all, and it was played about 25 miles from where I sit writing this.

But if you go back and look at my posts in this blog, you won't see an excess of Packer postings.

I'm also a graduate of the University of Arkansas — but I was a Razorback fan long before I walked into my first class in Fayetteville. I didn't need to enroll in college there to be a Razorback fan. When you're brought up in Arkansas, it goes with the territory.

Sure, there have been times when I have written about the Razorbacks or the Packers, but I never wanted this blog to be solely about the Razorbacks or the Packers. I wanted it to be a little more open than that.

It's kind of the same way with my entertainment blog, although I freely admit that I do tend to use that one to write about the music, the movies, the books that have meant something to me. For example, I'm a Beatles fan, and I have been known to write about the Beatles — as a group or as individuals — from time to time.

But I do strive for some variety.

However ...

I am a football fan. And, by late July, I'm really anticipating the start of the football season. I don't think it would matter what else was happening in the world of sports — but that's sort of like trying to prove a negative, isn't it?

Let's just say that nothing so far — not the Summer Olympics nor anything else — has stolen my attention from the approach of the football season.

Right now, I suppose, it is still up for grabs whether the NFL season will be played or if it will be delayed — the team owners unanimously approved an agreement and, if the players don't do so as well, they will be seen as the obstructionists by the fans.

Never fear. Sources apparently are telling ESPN that a deal has been reached.

Now, as a Packer fan, I will always be interested in what happens to Brett Favre, and I'll always be grateful to him for what he did for the Packers. It sure was a lot more fun to watch Packer games after he came along than it was before.

But Favre is 41 now, and the most recent word from him, after an injury–plagued 2010 season in Minnesota, was that he was retiring from pro football. Now, however, comes word from The Sporting News that he might sign with Philadelphia to serve as Michael Vick's backup.

Will the drama never end?

With the season approaching, I much prefer the drama coming from the keyboard of Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham (Ala.) News, who suggests that Arkansas (currently picked to finish third in the SEC West) could well be "the next Auburn."

The Razorbacks, he writes, are "a team that can leap from something like 8–5 to something like 14–0 in a single bound." That is definitely the kind of thing I like to hear.

Yep, I'm ready for some football.