Photo by the Associated Press
With the National Football League finally ending its four and a half month lockout, we fans have experienced something akin to waking up from a coma on Christmas day. We’ve collectively been on life support for the summer, only to open our eyes to Tom Brady and Adrian Peterson standing by our hospital bed, carrying boxes of glistening presents and telling us everything is going to be OK. And even if you never took the lockout seriously, you had to at least breathe a sigh of relief knowing your Sundays have once again been booked through February.
It’s not like we wouldn’t have survived the long, cold winter without the NFL, and maybe we would have simply piled all of our enthusiasm into college football. However, we can’t say there wouldn’t have been something missing each week. Fantasy football, friends, family, all the elation and anguish that comes with rooting for your favorite team. And regardless of whether you win or lose, you can’t forget the occasional fit of drunken debauchery. If baseball is still considered to be America’s pastime, then football should be dubbed “America’s Obsession.” I shudder to think of the possible ramifications of a fall season without the great game. Especially in a time of recession, we Americans deserve a little more escapism to go along with our super hero blockbusters.
