In South Alabama fall has arrived and it's the kind of weather that makes you feel good to be alive. Those of you who live in the deep South know what I'm talking about. From June to mid-September I try to spend as little time outdoors as possible. The heat and humidity literally take your breath away. So the cool air and shortening days fill me with happiness and more willingness to dabble in football.
I am not a big football fan. It's not that I'm anti-football (and anyway admitting to such a thing in Alabama might get me thrown out of the state), I simply don't have the background. I didn't grow up with football. My K-12 public school in Florida, with an enrollment of 300-ish, understandably did not have a football team. So, I don't have a history with football. I don't understand the rules of the game. To my untrained eye it looks like the players just run into each other and pile up, and not much happens.
But, that's changing. My son is playing football in middle school for the first time, so I'm learning a little about the game. I've been introduced to all of the padding and protective gear that the players have to wear, as well as the infinite options available in cleats. Also, USA has a relatively new football program, now in its fourth year, and some of my students are players. So, I have more of a vested interest in the sport. AND, now that the weather is agreeable, I'm more willing to join the other fans in the stadium to cheer on the Jags.
On a related note, I'm really trying to finish reading Tom Wolfe's novel "I Am Charlotte Simmons," about the modern college experience. The book has been out since 2004, so it's not news anymore, but I want to read more fiction related to higher ed, and this one is on my list. The setting is fictional Dupont University in Pennsylvania, which purportedly was modeled after Duke University. The book is full of stereotypical college characters -- misogynistic frat boys, lunkhead athletes, loser nerds, slutty sorority girls, and snobbish, intellectually superior professors. I'm not giving anything away to say that the reader won't come away feeling good about higher ed after having completed this book.
At any rate, a great deal of the book is devoted to the corruption rampant in college athletics, and in this case the sport under the microscope is basketball. The whole time I've been reading Wolfe's book I've kept wondering why he didn't focus on football? Not that college football is or isn't more allegedly corrupt than college basketball, but it's certainly a much bigger phenomenon in university culture. However, that may just be my southern perspective, because where I live, football is often compared to a religion.
So, at this point, about two-thirds of the way through the ridiculously long (600+ pages) "I Am Charlotte Simmons," I can't say that I'd recommend it. But I am feeling good about fall...and football.
