Sports Columns

Guess Who's Back? 

By Sean Perri

       As we lay out on our cozy beach chairs (the ones you almost kill yourself on trying to unfold), drinking our iced teas or what have you, listening to the radio and feeling the gentle breeze come in off the ocean, you realize it's time to go in as a seagull has decided to use your hat for a toilet, the little kid next to you dumped sand in your drink and the pack of prepubescents in front of you are blasting "It's Getting Hot In Here"...for the sixth time in a row.  So you go inside and search for sanctuary. 

       What better sanctuary than the baseball diamond?  Well, the gridiron of course!  WIth the ominous clouds of a strike looming, talk of ballplayers on steroids and of fixed games as recently as the seventies, football could not be arriving at a better time.

       Last night, I had the pleasure of watching the exhibition game between the Redskins and the 49ers.  I knew I wasn't going to see TO, Stephen Davis or even Jeff Garcia much, if at all.  It didn't matter.  The boys are back and so is the game so many Americans love to watch.

       Are there problems in football?  Yeah, of course, I am sure there are.  Do a lot of NFL players use steroids?  I think an easier question to answer would be, which NFL players don't use steroids?  But, from the standpoint of an NFL and MLB fan, the problems of the NFL pale in comparison to that of the MLB.  At least we know that most teams have a legitimate shot at having a decent season in the NFL.  You can't say that for the MLB.  I am not saying the Detroit Lions are going to make the playoffs, but they have a shot.  However, you knew in the beginning of the baseball season that the Detroit Tigers weren't going anywhere.  The bottom line is league parity is as good as it can get in the NFL.  The same can't be said for the MLB.  Maybe that's the reason for the rising popularity of the NFL over the MLB.

       So football season is slowly creeping into our lives.  For me, that means Sundays waking up in time to catch ESPN's review of the days games, making my last minute roster changes (yes, my league allows sunday moves), not shaving, not showering, laying on my couch all day, cooking up some food, drinking some suds and finding my sanctuary on the gridiron.

       As Levon Kirkland once said (it went something like this...), "Some people have God on Sunday, I have football".