Its here. It is finally that time of year again. Fall? You ask? Well in a way, but only because it signals the time of year for the best season of all: football season in the south.
There is just something about those Friday night lights around a football field with the smell of concession stand hamburgers filling the air that gets a southern gal’s heart pumping.
The sound of the drumline joined by blaring horns and tuba’s is enough to make any distracted bystander suddenly feel excited for the match-up on the gridiron.
The excitement always seems to reach a pentacle of anticipation as the National Anthem is played and the captains of the opposing teams flip the coin. The crowds seem to hold their breathe as they wait to see which side will be getting the ball in the first quarter.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is how a proper fall night is spent down here where the weather is still hot enough to fry an egg on the road an hour before kickoff. (Don’t believe me? Try it this Friday evening.)
For weeks now, the local diners have been filled with banter over whose son or grandson will stand out to become the next Trent Richardson or Pat Sullivan. Last year’s highlights will have been discussed and every angle of past plays will offer some helpful insights on what the audience can expect for the upcoming season.
Before the school bells rang signaling the opening day of classes, the cheer teams and band members will have been out in the sweltering heat practicing and perfecting their routines to entertain the crowds for the opening night.
Out on the practice fields, coaches have been drilling in the basics to freshmen and varsity players alike. From two-a-days to evening work outs football players have been pushed and prepped to find the best of their ability to walk home with a ‘w’ for the first game of the year.
So what is it about these special Friday nights? Is it because some of us are parents and feel a sense of pride to watch our children take part of the pageantry? Maybe.
Is it that there is simply something new to do on Friday nights after a long summer of beach going and movie watching? Maybe.
Is it that we take pride in our local schools and want to support them and spend money to help benefit the various programs at the school through the purchase of a ticket to the game? Maybe.
I don’t really know what the answer is. Maybe its some of all of that and more. Maybe its also because football and the south have a relationship that is as traditional as apples and pie.
Down here, we southerners have been accused of living life a little slower. Maybe that’s the case in most instances, but that slow moving lifestyle goes out the window for 60 minutes of football on Friday nights.
For us, time altogether stops and we focus on the game. For those sixty minutes the people in the bleachers become like a single organism cheering for great plays, screaming at bad calls and honoring in silence any injured players.
The word stranger doesn’t exist in the stands as long as your wearing the right colors, but even when fans of opposite teams meet in the crowded lines at the concession stand a single nod and half grin signals the phrase ‘great game’.
On Friday nights in the stadium everyone is family. Football family. Little children run around behind or under the bleachers attended to and watched over by the community itself, as the good nature of the game permeates facility. The drama of the outside world seems to be left behind as one walks through the fenced in gates.
So whether you are going out to support the Hurricanes, the Eagles, the Devils or those Royals in blue, take a moment and look around. Take in the atmosphere and enjoy that moment.
After all, we have waited all year for this night to roll around again.
