Football much more than just X’s and O’s
High school football is one of the strongest bonding agents I’ve ever seen. It brings together people from all walks of life. On any Friday night in the fall, you can find fans at a game that are both young and old, male and female, rich and poor. The list of differences goes on and on.
That’s one of the biggest attractions of the game for me. I’m not nearly as big a student of the game as most would think. I don’t always see the game from the same viewpoint that other fans do. Yes, I enjoy seeing a great play, maybe one that’s not even around the ball. A good block, a great run or an outstanding defensive play certainly gets my blood running. But I’m certainly not as big an ‘X’s and O’s’ guy as most might think.
I’m not terribly concerned with who wins the contest either. I’ve had my favorites in the past but the older I become, winning becomes a much smaller part of the overall picture. I just enjoy the event itself and all the great things that go along with making high school football such a special part of our culture.
High school football is a great rallying point for our society. Nowhere has that been demonstrated any stronger than in northwestern Ohio the last couple of weeks following heavy flooding in numerous communities. I witnessed the devastation personally last week, spending six days in the area with my church’s (St. Mark’s UMC) disaster response team. We helped just a handful of the people whose lives were changed so dramatically in just a matter of hours.
On my Friday evening in Ohio, even though I was nearly 500 miles from home, I couldn’t keep from attending a local high school game. I thought that maybe by attending a battle between two prep teams in the area I could get a better idea of how these northerners were dealing with their inconveniences of the past few weeks.
As I expected, the flooding was not the main topic prior to kickoff. Sure, there was some conversation about the disaster. But general small talk about the game and other day-to-day activities that people had experienced that week seemed more commonplace. The two teams that were about to compete against each other were 2-0 and first place in the conference was on the line. Winning the game and remaining undefeated seemed to be much more important at the time.
Maybe that’s what makes high school football so special to so many. Going to a game on Friday night is a way for so many people to let off some steam from the daily grind of the week’s work and personal problems. Fans can get away from whatever problems they’ve experienced since last week’s game.
For two to three hours, prep football fans can forget about life’s daily issues and focus on what’s really important ?? their kids and the activities that are so important to them.
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Murphy Fair has published ‘Tennessee High School Football’ for the past 20 years. His Website (murphyfair.com) gives high school fans further insight into the prep football scene.