Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Geaux Falcons!

Apologies! I’ve left you all alone for way too long, , tears rolling down your face as you realize once again that I’ve let you down. I have to say – threw me off. Running around town buying batteries and waiting in line for generators, then later getting the heck out of dodge after day four with no electricity and a 2-year-old. After that, My Girl started school and stopped taking a daily nap. That’s been worse than the hurricane. Plus … hey. A bit of laziness got the better of me. A lack of momentum. I’d tell you to sue me, but this blog doesn’t pay so there wouldn’t be much point.

But now I’m back. I’m afraid I haven’t had any real adventures (unless you count evacuating my house at 9pm the night before the storm in driving rain when the cops knocked on our door), but it is my favorite time of the year so let’s talk about that. Not back-to-school, exactly. Not the cooling of the air or the falling of leaves (although this will be my first year to live among the leaves changing color, and I’m very excited about that). Not even my favorite holidays – Halloween and Thanksgiving, which are, in my books, the most awesome after my birthday.

Ladies and Gentlemen … it’s football season.

For those of you who don’t know me (and hey, I’m aware that the bulk of my readers and I share some DNA), I love football. A LOT. Less than I love my family, but more than most forms of alcohol, all of the major food groups, and totally more than shoes.

I’m aware that this is for the most part, and hey. That’s fine. Baseball is a great sport with more beauty and nuance than football. Can’t wait to see Moneyball. My husband is from England, and he’s foremost a rugby fan (the World Cup is going on right now), which has much more spontaneous athletic genius. I’m a huge fan of golf and its metaphysics and basketball’s March Madness. I participated in my brother-in-law’s NASCAR pool (even won it for a few weeks), and I know what an LBW is in cricket and the offside rule in the Beautiful Game. I’m going on a bit … my point is, I love sports.

But football is my favorite. My dad and granddad were both coaches at Southeastern Louisiana University; when I was a little girl I’d sit in the stands during practice and games, wearing my team-themed apparel. I went to a Southeastern Conference school, which is to football as the Ivy League is to intellectual-thinkin’ book-smarts. Personally? I’d rather have the football. 

My favorite team is my college team: the Louisiana State University Fighting Tigers. It’s a luxury, being a Tiger fan, because right now, we’re good, and success begets success. However, most of the time I’m just waiting for something to go wrong. I certainly was for the Tigers’ first game of the season, versus the Oregon Ducks. I was so worked up I may have overserved myself a little on the sangria while I was making my duck and andouille gumbo. Turns out, though, that the Tigers spent the off-season building just the sort of team I like, featuring a lightening-quick monster D and pairing it with a tough, on the ground running game, and they ate those Ducks for lunch. Yeah, so our QB1 got himself a little arrested in the pre-season. QB2 (now QB1) is a senior and a good guy from Texas who hopefully won’t make mistakes and will let the disgustingly good defense win games. We won two BCS championships with quarterbacks like that. This weekend the West Virginia Mountaineers are on the menu, and I’m feeling good.

Here in Fairfield, I’m looking forward to high school football; . That’s part of what drove us out here in the first place; not just the football in particular, but the community surrounding it: fall air, Falcons, Frito pie, and Friday Night Lights. Can anyone tell me if our head coach and his wife look anything like Emmy-winner Coach & Mrs. Taylor? Because that’s what I’m picturing.

(Note: I later found this photo. Very promising Coach Taylor likeness.)

I had a little trouble finding the team’s schedule, and in case you did, too, here it is.

I see that our team . There’s three things guaranteed in life: death, taxes and momentum shifts. Plus I was always more of an East Dillon Lions-type fan than a Dillon Panther. Builds character. Next week is our first home regular season game, 7 p.m. at Taft Field (785 Unquowa Road, Fairfield, 255-7201). I plan on being there in my silver and blue, to witness the team’s moments of triumph and support them in their moments of failure. Fairfield prides itself on being a community-driven, supportive town that turns out some great kids; what better way of proving that than by going to your local high school football game? Because you don’t win them all, but as a wise man once said: clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.

Or as we say in Louisiana: Geaux Falcons!