Football!!!!!

It's the time of year where minds fill with images of the season:  fall leaves, apples, cider, cooler weather, and of course the major impact of the autumn, FOOTBALL!  Yes, football!  Admit it!  It grabs you, focuses you on the field of competition, and turns you into screaming maniacs when your team scores or groans of agony when they lose!  Football, the one sport in America which pulls so many into watching it, cheering it, and playing it!  Armchair quarterbacks are at full attention.  Fantasy football teams flourish.  Pick up games in the yard or a park occur with increasing frequency!

Oh yeah!  Football; the United States answer to the Roman gladiator games.  Yes, the players are our gladiators.  Think about how football players are looked over during the combine.  Sort of like prize animals in one respect.  The teams' scouts watch how the players run, jump, leap, catch, push, shove, and primp.  I'm surprised they don't check their teeth and genitals the way prize animals are touched when competing.  Oh wait, they just might think that would be a good idea.  Yet, it is rather similar to the way Romans picked the gladiators.

Football, a game we love to watch and play!  Football, a business focused on profit.  That's right, profit.  Hey, your injured, no problem, get a shot and get back out there!  Hit 'em hard and knock them out of the game!  You wan the position, fight for it!  Show us why you should have it.  Injured?  You want the position, get back out there....Yeah, profit....football players, rulers of the sports.  Our gladiators....how many have been paralyzed?  How many young have died in practices due to competition and the corporations profits are more important than the men?

Football, I love it!  But I wonder, how far will they go?  Yeah, football!  See ya, Pats and Bills are playing!  Great teams and great game!  Time for some nachos!

Duane Hansom sculpture.  Football Vignette, 1969