September 3, 2001
DOWN HOME:
We all know exactly why God made Friday nights
___You never know what's about to pop into your head. Like a couple of Saturdays ago, roasting in the Texas summer sun, I kept humming the chorus to "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year."
___I first heard that song when I was just a little kid. Mother and Daddy had it on a"Greatest Hits of Christmas" album we got at a Phillips 66 gas station one year. Johnny Mathis sang the festive tune. Or maybe it was Perry Como. Whoever.
MARV KNOX
Editor
___Theologically speaking, of course, Christmas is the second-most wonderful time of the year, right behind Easter.
___But on a blazing Saturday morning at Pennington Field in Bedford, I wasn't exactly thinking--much less humming--theologically.
___This was a scrimmage between the Fighting Farmers of Lewisville High School and the Trinity Trojans from Euless. I was thinking football.
___(OK, some folks claim football is a religion in Texas. I've even argued that point before. But on deeper reflection and comparison of football with bona fide religious groups, I've changed my mind. People agree about football wayyyyy to much for it to be a religion.)
___Thinking footballogically, this is the most wonderful time of the year. All things are possible, at least in the minds of players and coaches and fans. Of course, the preseason polls are out, but before the first kickoff of the season, they mean practically nothing. Last year's heroes could be this year's goats, and vice versa.
___Beginning this very week, Friday nights will fill with the symphonic melody of helmets popping, bands blaring, fans cheering, coaches yelling, quarterbacks barking signals.
___Our family, like millions of others across Texas (and, less emphatically, elsewhere throughout the country), appreciates the broader spectacle of Friday night football.
___Sure, it's a Herculean struggle between Our Team and the carpetbaggers from the high school down the road. But it's more. It's also halftime.
___We're particularly fond of drill teams, since we now count two Lewisville Farmerettes among us. Lindsay is a senior, and Molly is a freshman. And their mama and daddy cheer as fervently for the Farmerettes' performance as for the Fighting Farmers' touchdowns.
___We also cheer for the band and flag corps and for the ROTC color guard. We even cheer for the other school's band and drill team and color guard. We'd cheer for the Student Council president, too, if she'd run up and down the field a little bit.
___OK, maybe I do think a little theologically at these times. Because surely, on a Friday night sometime long after Creation Week, God made high school football games and said, "This is very good."
___And that's why this is the most wonderful time of the year.
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