I had a college professor tell me once that a study had been done that found the sport of football somehow makes a connection to a guy's brain. I don't remember the details of all this, but it went on to attempt to explain why so many guys like to watch football. Turns out that, for a lot of us at least, we can't help it.
With that in mind, you can probably guess that I have been looking forward to this weekend for a long time. This weekend marks the beginning of the college and high school football seasons. The first time I see the opening segment to ESPN's college football show on Saturday mornings is honestly an emotional experience for me. I guess it is somewhat similar to the experience I had at this time of year when I was a much younger person and it would be the first Saturday of the new season of Saturday morning cartoons.
Usually, the new cartoon season would be around the middle of September and, on rare occasions, the new cartoon season would begin on my birthday (Sept. 13, just in case you want to avoid the holiday shopping rush). Think about how fun that day was. One cartoon I saw when I was a youngster was about college football. Perhaps you can imagine the level of unbridled ecstasy I felt whenever that little gem would come on TV. Or perhaps, you can't. It would be very difficult to explain, if you don't understand already. I have friends to whom football has never been much of a source of entertainment. I have to admit, I don't fully understand those friends, either.
If I were a space alien from way out there in the far-off galaxy and I happened to land on Earth (probably near a trailer park somewhere, because that's where those space alien types tend to land) and I happened to see a football game going on, I might think it to be strange. One group of guys running up and down a pasture, carrying an oddly-shaped leather bag, while another group of guys violently attempt to stop them.
I do imagine that to a space alien, football may seem a bit odd. I would also imagine that if I were to land in an alien's trailer park way out there in the far-off galaxy, I might think their Saturday games were a bit odd. Their Saturday morning cartoons might be kinda cool though.