As bowl season approaches, football fans everywhere will rush to their televisions to cheer on their favorite teams.
They'll observe rocking bands, smiling cheerleaders, and teeth-removing hits by the greatest athletes in the collegiate game.
While this is all well and good, there still exists a brand of this sport that must not be forgotten. That brand is the ever-classic existence of small town, high school football.
Whether it's in done in Odessa or Dillon, Texas or Alexandria, Virginia, the bond that is formed by blood, sweat, and tears during those crucial years of life is imperative to the existence of any teenaged male.
Despite the words of Kenny Chesney in "Boys of Fall, it's not just turning to face the Stars and Stripes or "fightin' back those butterflies."
It's not just "call it in the air, alright, yes sir we want the ball."
It's so much more than that.
College and pro teams alike have pre game national anthems and coin tosses. But the part of any high school football team that truly makes it stand out is the support behind it.
Entire towns will close up shop for the night just to go to the game, and it's the biggest event for the weekend wherever it's played.
For some, it can even define an entire high school career.
High school football and its camaraderie teach the lessons that can only be taught between the ages of 15 and 18, and it molds a young man in the way only it can.
In this special stage of the game are the years that old men look back upon with great pride and remembrance.
They and other alumni stab fingers at different pictures from years gone by, citing some of the best stories of their lives as they do so.
High school football is an American tradition unlike any other, and it lives through all who appreciate its meaning like nothing else can.
In the movie and TV series "Friday Night Lights" and the award-winning film "Remember the Titans," lives are twisted and turned at every snap of the ball, just like in real life.
A split-second decision of whether or not to dive for a ball like Jason Street or to cut one way or the other like Boobie Miles can impact one's future forever. That's scary, but it's also what makes this experience so worth it.
High school football builds champions on and off the field, no matter the number in the win column.
So, the next time you hear someone say that he or she never let his or her kid play football because of the safety risks, don't think about the freak accidents. Don't think about the regrets he (or she?) might have.
Think about the friends that will be made. Think about the memories that will be formed. Think about the lessons, the tools, and the toughness that will be learned.
Yes, parents will need to consider the muddy uniforms, the practice time, and the bloody faces.
But I hope they'll reconsider for the little boy inside each of us that fell in love with the sounds of the game, the smell of the grass, the grittiness of the dirt, and the crunching of pads as the greatest ritual of small town America live on to see yet another Friday night.
