Football
One word.
When spoken in any context, it will most likely catch the interest of any ears within striking distance. It's as powerful as beer and women to the male psyche - and even holds its own with a lot of females.
Football is king in America and it's right around the corner and, man oh man, am I excited.
High school football starts on the 24th. The Grizzlies and Bobcats open their seasons on Sept. 1. Then the NFL - oh, that NFL - gets going full tilt on Sept. 9.
I'm so excited I went to Vancouver, British Columbia, to get a football fix two weeks ago. All right, so that wasn't the only reason I went to Vancouver. A bunch of my buddies were helping me celebrate my bachelor party and the CFL game between the B.C. Lions and Winnipeg Blue Bombers was a great catch while we were there. Our main goal was to watch Grizzly great Dave Dickenson, but he's still smarting from a concussion.
Anyway, there's so many things about football - any kind of football - that make it magnificent: Brute strength, brains, endless strategies, team work by a ton of guys, lots of hard practices for less than an hour of mind-blitzing real output per week … I could go on and on.
I'm so excited, I've already got all my Friday nights mapped out until Oct. 19. I'll be covering high school games for Polson, Libby, Whitefish, Columbia Falls, Bigfork and Ronan. I'm giving my car some TLC for those long, Grizzly home-game Saturdays. Then for Sundays, here's how pathetic my love affair with the game is: I've got my living room set up with six TVs and six DirecTV receivers with the NFL Sunday Ticket.
It's a problem, I know.
It's a good thing I'm a sports writer. What better way to constructively put my retarded obsessiveness to work than in this line of work, eh?
I tried to get away from being that fanatic two years ago. I didn't subscribe to the Sunday Ticket and I didn't play fantasy football, which I had been doing since my sophomore year in high school in 1991.
But the NFL didn't make it easy on me. It launched the NFL Network, which is airing 52 preseason games in 29 days this season, and its Sirius Radio coverage is outstanding. Plus, local CBS and FOX coverage kept infuriating me on Sundays. I just couldn't stay away.
But here's a piece of advice for all those fantasy football junkies out there: Don't let fantasy football ruin your love of the game. Fantasy football is a nice compliment to the game because it expands interest from your favorite team to the entire league, which is good because when your team is in the crapper, you're still into the league. But if, and when, you get really competitive in fantasy, it's easy to lose control and start hating Sunday afternoons, after your players have tanked and your opponent's have flourished.
Speaking of fantasy football, here's a shameless plug to spread my wealth of excitement: I've started fantasy leagues online at both NFL.com and ESPN.com. They're both free. Come and play with me. The ESPN.com league is called "Montana FFL" and the NFL.com league is called "Western Montana FFL." No passwords are required. All you have to do is join and keep up with it.
Just keep fantasy football in perspective with your love for the real game.
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Carl Hennell is a sports reporter for the Daily Inter Lake, whose columns appear every Monday. He can be reached at chennell@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4446.