We’re adjusting to life without Boogins. Squee finds himself getting a lot more attention and privileges these days. We’ve set up an automatic feeder to drop a serving of kibble at 4:30 in the morning, so he doesn’t need to wake us up at the crack of dawn, saying, “Hey, you guys! I’m hungry!” So far that’s working out pretty good. He’s also getting a lot more catnip and play with the “bird” and the “fish” toys.
I miss Boogins, but after my last post, collecting all those beautiful pictures of him when he was healthy, I’m more convinced than ever that we did the right thing. I say I miss Boogins, but in truth I do not miss the frail, sick cat he was at the end. Rather, I miss the healthy, happy Boogins…and I realize now that I was missing that cat long before we made that last trip with him to the vet.
But as for Squee, I don’t think he’s as despondent about the changes as he is, perhaps, baffled. One thing that does not change for him, though, is that on Saturdays during football season, he feels safest in the furthest corner of the house, preferably burrowed under a blanket or a pile of laundry. Whenever there’s yelling and cheering about what’s happening in a football game on TV, Squee assumes the outbursts are directed at him, and runs to hide.
Those of you who know me from way back might be surprised to hear how heartily I am enjoying college football, for if you remember, it never used to interest me. This is my sixth football season in Alabama, and each year I learn more about the game, the players, the drama and melodramas that surround everything about the college football scene. Yes, the game itself can be exciting, especially if your team is winning (and rooting for Alabama, that’s been most of the time!), but the stuff that happens OFF the field can be equally entertaining.
I’ve discovered over these past six years that there are “seasons” of football, each with its own special pleasures. If you think football only takes place in the Fall, how wrong you are! Of course the games are played in the Fall, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
SIGNING DAY
The football year starts in February, with “Signing Day.” Before this day, there are plenty of rumors about which high school hopefuls have “made a commitment” to play ball at a particular university. Of course, with 18 year old boys, the term “commitment” often has very little meaning. We’ve seen kids “commit” to Auburn, then end up playing for Alabama, and vice versa. There’s always a lot of drama when a good player says he’ll go here or there…and then, guess what? Nope! He decides to go somewhere else completely different. 
Sometimes the kid himself actually states his intentions, sometimes it’s only rumor. If a kid “commits” to one school, then chooses instead that school’s rival, well, the drama is increased tenfold!
At one point, Tim Tebow was heavily rumored to choose Alabama. In his book, Through My Eyes (yes, I’ve read Tim Tebow’s autobiography, and how pretentious is it to write an autobiography when you’re just graduated from college, right?), Tebow claims that he wasn’t exactly sure which school he was going to choose—Florida or Alabama—until the moment the words came out of his mouth, on the spot, in front of God, the media, and the entire country. That’s the kind of drama I’m talking about!
But on signing day, every kid actually signs, and then the commitment becomes real. It’s like, before that day, they’re just dating, or maybe “engaged,” but on signing day, they get married. Of course, just like in any marriage, a player can change his mind after the fact. However, if he leaves one school, he can’t play football at another school for an entire year. This way we don’t have dozens of rookie football players jumping around from school to school. That would be chaos!
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!
After signing day, we have Spring practice, which often includes a pep rally and an exhibition game for the campus and community. In Alabama, it’s called “A Day,” and the first year I was here, 92,000 fans filled the stands. What! 92,000? 
Mostly, it was a show of support for our new coach, Nick Saban, recently of the Miami Dolphins, who actually arrived in Alabama two days before I did.
One thing Nick Saban and I have in common is that we both traveled from South Florida to come live in Tuscaloosa, Alabama the first week of 2007. Other than that, we have absolutely nothing in common. Well, wait. Not exactly true: we both get a paycheck from the University, but I would imagine the amount WITHHELD from his paycheck on a weekly basis is roughly the amount I actually bring home for an entire YEAR.
Saban is the highest paid coach in college football. And he’s been worth every penny.
CALM BEFORE THE STORM & FOOTBALL GLORY!
Summer is probably the quietest season in the football year, the calm before the storm, but when late August/early September rolls around, it’s “Let the games begin!” Now we’re in full swing for the next fourteen weeks at least, and if you’re team is lucky (or talented) enough to do well, you will go on to a “Bowl Game,” or perhaps even a Championship Bowl Game!
That’s where we are right now. Alabama has “won the West,” and this Saturday we play the winner of the East, University of Georgia, in the SEC Championship game. This year, the winner of this game will go on to play Notre Dame in the National Championship. Woo hoo! We are so close we can taste it! The general feeling around here is that if we can just get past Georgia, beating Notre Dame will be no problem. But we have a big hurdle to clear in Saturday’s game, probably our toughest of the season.
COACHING CAROUSEL
As we await the Bowl games and the Championship games, something else interesting goes on in the world of football. We are now in the sub-season called the “Coaching Carousel.” Those coaches who did poorly during the year have been “on the hot seat,” in danger of losing their job. Several SEC coaches have been fired this year—Derek Dooley of Tennessee, Joker Phillips of Kentucky (Welll….my contention is it’s impossible to take anyone seriously when their name is “Joker”), John L. Smith of Arkansas (who was only an interim coach, anyway, and there’s more to this story that I’ll get to later), and most notably, Gene Chizik of Auburn.
Auburn is Alabama’s rival. Boo…booo…hiss…hisss… We like to see bad things happen to Auburn. I’m not particularly happy to see bad things happen to Gene Chizik. By all accounts, he seems like a stand-up guy, a decent human being, but I do love the mayhem the Auburn football program has been thrown into as they must now search for a new coach. And see, here’s where the drama comes in. Because the question has to be asked: after the abysmal season Auburn just had (3-9, and winless in the SEC), who is going to want to inherit this mess?
There are reports that the players are out of control, so much so that Chizik hired a “rent a cop” service to police a DAILY 11pm curfew for all the players. There are reports that players seemed annoyed by being told to get into the game, preferring instead to dance on the sidelines and flap their jaws. There are other reports—-and apparently this has been speculated upon for years, and I emphasize the word “speculated” because nothing has yet been definitively proven—that Auburn pays its players. College sports. Paying players. That is one big fat NO NO, if it’s true.
Two years ago, Chizik was blessed with quarterback Cam Newton and Auburn won the National Championship. Without Newton, they have been in a steady decline. Two years out from the Championship, Chizik is fired. No one has every before fallen so far, so fast. How could this have happened?
Here’s what you need to know: Auburn and Newton were being investigated by the NCAA over charges that Newton was paid $180,000 to play football at Auburn. It’s a giant controversy, with all kinds of sideline stories. If you’re interested, you can go look it up. In the end, the investigation was closed with no evidence of truth. But some people believe just because no evidence of truth was FOUND doesn’t mean that it’s not necessarily true.
And now, Auburn is being investigated again. Not exactly sure for what, but the “pay for play” accusations seem likely, as this has apparently been going on for years, and some past players have spoken openly about it. (Of course, when they do, Auburn says “Oh, they’re disgruntled.” But if that’s true, I have to wonder why there are so many disgruntled former Auburn football players.)
I could go on and on about the Auburn situation, but I don’t have all day, and I want to move on to other topics. But I just mention it here as an example of the kind if DRAMA you are likely to run into if you follow college football.
So, I was talking about the Auburn coaching job and who would want it now. Well, apparently Bobby Petrino, the former coach at Arkansas, is interested in the job, but all the speculation right now is whether or not Auburn would be interested in him. More drama: Petrino was fired from Arkansas when he hired his 20-something mistress for a position in the football office, then got into a motorcycle accident with her and LIED to his bosses about it. Apparently in the past, he’s also “left in the middle of the night,” abandoning one coaching gig for another without so much as a “So long and thanks for all the fish!” If Auburn is trying to put their program right, some people feel this sort of character may not be the best choice. Just tonight, one of the local commentators said he believed Auburn would “sell their soul” and go with Petrino. He actually used the phrase “sell their soul.” Ouch!
HEISMAN
Well, those are Auburn’s issues. Every program has its own, both good and bad. This year, we were beaten only one time, by Texas A&M, who has a freshman quarterback so good his nickname is “Johnny Football,” and he’s practically a shoo-in for the Heisman Trophy. If he wins, it will be the first time ever a freshman has won the Heisman.
Before I followed football I had heard the phrase “Heisman Trophy” but wasn’t sure what it was, so for the uninitiated, it is basically the highest honor for the best college football player of the year. Each year, several hopefuls are invited to New York, and one kid is selected. Three years ago, Alabama’s running back Mark Ingram won the Heisman. It was the first time an Alabama player had ever won this honor, so it was icing on the cake of our National Championship that year. Last year, we sent Trent Richardson, but he didn’t win. Robert Griffin III from Baylor won, with his Superman socks.
One of the things I most enjoy about watching the Heisman ceremony is getting to see all the young men cleaned up and looking super-spiffy in their suits and ties. This year our quarterback A.J. McCarron may be invited. I certainly hope so, because he’s a cutie, and I would love to see him in the suit and tie!
He probably won’t win, but it would be such an honor to be invited, and especially for Alabama to have a representative at the Heisman ceremonies three years in a row!
THE DRAFT
The very best players in all of college football go on to the NFL Draft, which takes place in April. This is where football gets serious, as players hope to be drafted into NFL teams with salaries that are represented in terms of millions of dollars. However, everyone I’ve ever known who has enjoyed football has expressed a preference for college football over NFL. Many coaches as well (Nick Saban among them) go to the NFL, but come back to the college level, because there’s an energy and excitement that somehow isn’t there in the NFL.
THE ONLOOKERS
Watching football I’ve become a big fan of ESPN, and always enjoy the personalities there. A while back, commentator Todd Blackledge would always do a segment called “Todd’s Taste of the Town,” where he would visit the best eateries in whatever college town they were visiting, and partake of some menu item that was oversized, incredibly greasy and looked disgustingly delicious. I miss that segment and wish they would bring it back.
A lot of the commentators are former coaches and players, not traditional broadcast journalists, so you have old-timer Lou Holtz who lisps like Sylvester the Cat while doling out truisms like, “You don’t have to be the best team in college football, you just have to be the best team on that field on that day.” And then there’s Lee Corso, who on every Saturday morning’s GameDay show dons the mascot head or outfit of whatever team he picks to win. Of course he always picks the team at the school they are visiting, and the crowd always goes wild.
Another personal favorite is Kirk Herbstreit, who offers lots of thoughtful commentary, but also puts on the acting chops for commercials for everything from Dove Soap for Men to Discover Card.
But that’s not all! I mean, ESPN is not the only entity talking about college football. Every afternoon from 2-6 you can tune into the Paul Finebaum show, where you will get some of the thoughtful commentary I just spoke about, but also a good dose of unbearable nonsense, as this is a call-in show, and every bozo in the country has a chance to try for their 30 seconds of fame. Mostly, I am not impressed by Finebaum’s rude and obnoxious callers, and I tend to turn off the radio when certain people call in. The morning show with the former Alabama players (many of whom I believe are Bible-believing Christians) is usually a lot more intelligent, and always a lot more respectful.
Finally, every Sunday night at 10:30 Russ and I watch a trio of local commentators on a show called “The Zone,” but which we refer to as “The Chuckleheads.” I don’t remember how that name got started, but we always enjoy this final wrap-up of the football weekend just before beginning a new work week.
TALK, TALK, TALK!
I mention all these TV and radio sports shows to make a point: you know, it’s generally said that women love to talk, talk, talk. Well, I’m here to tell you that MEN are not immune to the chatter bug. Men can talk just as much as women can, once you put them on their favorite topic: football. I can’t remember ever hearing a group of women devote so much time and energy to speculating on the outcome of any particular activity as I have heard when watching and listening to all these sports shows. If this team wins and that one loses…then what? If this coach is fired and that one is hired…then what? Who will win the Heisman? Who deserves to win the Heisman? Who will be a first round draft pickCan you really say Ohio State is better than Notre Dame? Sure they’ve won all their games…but look at their strength of schedule! Can the quarterback who leads the league in passing efficiency get it done against the #1 Defense in the country? There is no end to the jabber and gossip and speculation.
It’s fun.
So if you want excitement on the field, watch college football, when a field goal will win it, and the ball hits the upright. I mean…c’mon! In my opinion, you should get EXTRA points for doing that, not none! If you want drama, follow the Coaching Carousel, or the personal lives of star players who potentially throw away millions of dollars on an NFL career all because they can’t stop smoking weed. If you want to feel a swelling sense of pride in what young people can achieve when they focus their energy and talent on a single pursuit, heed the Heisman. But most of all, if you simply want to experience an enjoyable diversion, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat with a dollop of real life soap opera thrown in for good measure, then college football is your game.
