There’s nothing like football season
I’ll be the first to admit that basketball is my favorite sport to play and watch from a schematic standpoint, but I’ll be just as quick to tell you that football season in the South—and especially in Georgia—can’t be topped.
Not only does football season come at a perfect time of the year, as we start getting some not-too-hot days that eventually transition into nice fall days, but just about everyone in the South cares about football. On top of that, a good portion of those people love it.
Office and peer conversations take on a different tone, with a worthy substitute—football—dominating conversations that are reversed for family talk, work problems, and even politics during other times of the year.
Gas prices and stressful coworker rants turn into conversations centered around “How about them Dawgs?”
People go out and congregate and cheer alongside other people who might be their adversaries in other aspects of life, or at least people they would have never met outside of a football game. Football can bridge so many divides, even if they’re just temporary, and it’s needed with how divided society is at other levels.
For me, football season means family. Watching Auburn games with my family and driving across state lines for tailgates and games tops just about any other activity I can think of—not to mention the aid of a few beers and some food off the grill. All that makes me feel at home and comfortable, at a school I didn’t even go to, for no reason other than liking the same game as everyone else.
Even in DeKalb—where there are no dominant college or professional football teams—football has as strong of a presence as anywhere else, not only for fans of college and pro teams, but people can be seen as early as late July wearing high school team colors during their everyday lives.
The county regularly holds titles and accolades ranging from high school state titles to NFL Draft and roster records, and all of that gets a special spotlight during football season. It gives locals a special sense of pride in DeKalb football that glows a little extra in the fall.
The pride held in DeKalb football has manifested itself in the support systems and coaching staffs throughout the county, where seven high school teams are led by DeKalb alums and where pros and college players regularly return to hold camps and help with offseason practices.
It’s a community within a community, and it’s a community that accepts just about everyone.
There’s something special about football season in the south, and there’s nothing else quite like it.
