Summers are usually painfully slow for me (and everyone else for that matter) regarding football. By the time summer rolls around, everything football related is long gone. No actual games have been played in about five months, signing day is long gone, the NFL Draft has taken place and spring practice is over a month old. So. We. Wait. And. We. Wait.
And.
We.
Wait.
Some.
More.
As our friend Jonathan Tu rightly observed in Yeah Alabama 2008:
Football is an unsatisfactory metaphor for life, yes, but for some people and in some places life is an unsatisfactory waiting period for football. The SEC is full of those people and places.
That's my favorite quote ever about the South's passion for college football (the fact that it appeared in our annual is a mega bonus!)
One week from now, I will be in Atlanta. It's 2:32 a.m. in Birmingham right now, but it'll be 3:32 a.m. a week from now in the ATL. I will likely still be awake. I will either be out having a good time with my friends, or if we've all called it a night already, I'm likely to be in my bed...staring at the ceiling...unable to sleep because of the anticipation and excitement of what tomorrow will bring. Another season of Alabama football. It's a time of year that allows us to re-capture that sense of excitement we had as children about getting presents on Christmas morning.
As the season unfolds, its 12 games are likely be somewhat akin those Christmas mornings we experienced as children. Some of the presents you get you will expect, there'll be some super exciting surprises and then there'll be a few disappointments of things you thought you'd get, but didn't.
None of us know how the season will pan out. We all have our ideas, our hopes and our fears about what will happen, but none of us have a crystal ball (though we all hope for a crystal football) so we must wait some more. At one week away though, we won't have to wait long. The sunrise next Saturday will bring Alabama football with it. No more YouTubes of yesteryear's glory, it'll be time for the real thing. We won't likely win all of our games this year, but the process is in motion for us to regain our place on top of the mountain. One. More. Week.
Roll Tide Brothers and Sisters!
ROLL TIDE!!