Mixed start to football season

There are times where I want to be in a great mood concerning something, but there is just one thing holding me back. It's something that just sticks in the back of my head and keeps me from enjoying an overall picture.

That's the case with football right now. For me, Christmas might officially come on Dec. 25, but it actually kicks off the first week of college football. High school is already going on at that time, and I consider it somwhat of a pre-season. The NFL is a nice extra a week after college has started.

Although my old high school is doing well (2-1, ranked in their class. The only loss coming at the hands of a ranked school in a larger classification.), college is a different story. My Jacksonville State Gamecocks are staring 0-3 in the face after dropping a heartbreaker to Furman on the last play of the game and last week losing to UT-Chattanooga with 10 seconds left. UAB isn't the same team we beat in the mid-90's. They're a legit D-I school. I was looking forward to perhaps a home playoff game this year. That possibility is all but gone. We need to win the Ohio Valley Conference again just to make the playoffs.

It would be a shame if JSU goes in the tank this year and it could all be traced back to one play at the end of the first game of the year. If Furman's QB, Ingle Martin, is just tackled a second later, the clock runs out at the Gamecocks have the biggest win since the move to D-I, perhaps the biggest upset in school history.

On the same vein, Alabama's season may have been saved on Tyrone Prothro's good-grief-did-you-see-that catch Saturday night. On a fourth and 12 at the end of the first half, Prothro's 42-yard catch puts Bama at the one. One play later makes the score 21-17, Southern Miss. Without that catch, you wonder if Alabama wins.

As for the Falcons, I'm feeling pretty good about this team. It's the morning after we got back at Philladelphia for the NFC Championship game loss 14-10, on Monday night. (Monday Night Football makes me miss living in Wyoming and the Mountain Time Zone. There it's on from 7-10, the way it should be. I haven't seen a complete MNF or World Series game since moving to Georgia. Out there you also don't have to stay up all hours of the night to watch the college games out there with their teams and the crazy offenses.)

Although the Falcons won, it's different playing an Eagles defense without Jeremiah Trotter. He's one of those guys that when he's on the other team you want his head knocked off after he does one of those axe-chop deals following a big hit, but you'd find it absolutely delightful if he's wearing your colors.

As for Mike Vick, I don't want to hear anything else about him not being a true quarterback. Yeah, okay, what's your point? Don't call him a glorified running back taking snaps. If you can't bring yourself to call him a quarterback, fine. Just admit he's the only person in the NFL that does what he does at his position. He's a new breed of athlete, and this is coming from a conventional football fan that will take an awesome running game over a great passing game. I'll every time choose big-time defense over big-play offense. What we have in Atlanta, though, is something different in a quarterback and at time defies definition, so let him be.