For All the Football Fans

Spring practice is here for most of the middle and high schools in the south. Some of those same sounds and feelings are being heard and felt all across the country. I heard a man at the little league baseball game Tuesday night say, "It's only 117 days until kick-off." Football in the south is as traditional as fried chicken for Sunday dinner. Last year, the booster club held an informational class for all the parents who wanted to learn a little more about the rules and tendencies of the game. Practice goes for months with conditioning and running through offenses and defense schemes just waiting for the day to strap up and buckle in for the full scale collision course of middle school sports.

I noticed as I watched the warm ups yesterday, that there was a brief pause in the stretching routine and all the players took a knee on the whistle for a moment and then popped right back up. I was amazed that a set of coaches were not only interested in teaching my son the intriqusies of the game, but was also concerned about their well being as a person as well. Now I know they took prayer out of school and there are groups that would fight against even this act of outward aknowledgement, but I have said it and I will continue to say it. They can take everything they want to take away from our children that is pure and honest, and given the chance, even our children will rise up above the circumstances and be thankful for the opportunities that they have been given. OK, so it's not really about football at all. It's about raising your children to have a voice and a conviction about who they are and striving to be better for the good of society. That doesn't start on the football field. It starts at home. I look at this picture, and by statistics alone, this is the only aknowledgement that most of these kids will ever know. BUT, if given the chance......