Totally in Transition

Happy Thursday to one and all.

I hope it's a good day where you are.

As I now slowly near a ten year anniversary in North Texas it bestills me how some things never change. The constant motion or routine of life. 12 months a year, 365 days in total. Even if you anticipate what's to come, actually going through the motions to where you can see, touch, hear, taste, or speak it. 

Making the walk over to the local market, I saw it. It completely enveloped me for as far as the eyes could see, but it was there. To anyone who lives outside of the southwest or southeast or deep south, to try to explain may be futile, but I will try.

It's a given that some towns are sports towns where others are not. I recall a time in the 90's when Seattle was more into baseball than football, which reversed a 10 year trend. I also recall a couple of depressing 2-14 campaigns in the 90's.

If you go to a city like St. Louis or Boston, baseball will be the dominant topic for sports as well. My association with the game need no explanation. At one point I lived and breathed the mantra of football better than any other. That was until I read the book 'Friday Night Lights' in 1991 and moved South ten years later. Where does one begin to describe the level of fandom for football in the south? Texas for this blog...

The transition is slow. A banner attached to a car here and there. The road sign on the I-30. Seeing guys wear their #9 or #82 in honor of Tony Romo and Jason Witten.

Talk radio starts going the route of conjecture on the upcoming season. When training camp starts, every news conference with Wade Phillips is treated like Moses on the mountain about to discuss the Ten Commandments. Then the smack talk starts at work around the cooler and everyone seems to be irritable.

The fandom for the Cowboys is HUGE. It's amazing to watch the level fan loyalty in victory and defeat. I suppose it's easy to be a fan when your whole life you are treated to hot cheerleaders, exploding pyrotechnics after a touchdown, the advent of replay, a winning tradition in from 1966-1986, some colorful owners, and 1 coach for 29 years in a recognizable fedora.

If this were a church service change the words God and Devil to Blue and Silver. You'd have the same analogy. Everything Cowboys is treated with as much scrutiny as the The Warren Commission and multiple Grassy Knoll theories win or lose bv the experts.

So I walked by the front door of this market and I saw row after row of uniforms in the road and home color for America's Team. Primarily Tony Romo and surprisingly Dez Bryant. Not the first to wear #88 and definitely not the last.

Right next to the jerseys were a rash of Sports Illustrated's and Sporting News magazines with the cover splashed by a tan and smiling Tony Romo alongside Roger Staubach. Past and present as one. The subtitle said, 'The Stars are Aligned'.

All of this was put out today. By Sunday it will all be sold, gone on someone's person or mantle piece. Year after year this is how it is in Texas. Not only for the Cowboys, but for fans of Tech, Baylor, Oklahoma, Texas, and elsewhere collegiately. Can we mention high schools? Arlington Lamar, Celina, Plano East, Seguin, Southlake-Caroll, Permian-Odessa, Kilgore, Longview. Football is as important as breathing.

Walking along the pavement outside said market I felt a cool breeze hit me in the 88 degree night. Like a voice that said 'summer winds down and the Lone Star state now gets into pigskin mode'. For a moment it felt like fall. It also means a lot of 2 a days for kids one month removed from going back to school. An exciting time for players and fans.

Im not sure how many games I will get to watch this fall. Hockey and Basketball will keep me busy. Having only attended 4 Ranger games in 2010, perhaps this transition of ambition continues for me around the calendar.

In the decade past, it has been a treat to watch games involving TCU, SMU, Kansas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, North Texas, Troy State, Plano East, Mesquite, Keller, Richardson Pearce, even TCU-Addison and a bunch of Private Schools. 

From August 20th until February 6th, in my back yard, the ritual arrives with a vengeance, a pomp, a circumstance that is jaw dropping in the least. Awe inspiring at it's best. It's football in Texas and the South. Huge...HUGE...HHHHHUUUUUUGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!! Hope you're ready.

The transition is almost here. I believe I am ready.

Over and out in Big D

Mr. Will