As one who gets home from work well after midnight and goes to sleep several hours later, I was under the mistaken impression there is only one 8:30 each day.
Then, I received an intriguing invitation to speak to a men's fellowship group at Stout Memorial United Methodist Church on the subject "Why We Love Football.''
It sounded intriguing and interesting and if you know me, you know I like interesting.
Even though the group met at 8:30 a.m., I decided to accept their gracious offer.
I'm glad I did, for several reasons.
First, I got to meet a great group of people who treated me with kindness and respect, two commodities I find in short supply in today's society.
Second, they did what I try to do to my readers each day -they made me think.
Think about why we really do love football.
In doing some research, I discovered that the Colosseum in Rome, where the gladiators fought one another, had a seating capacity of 50,000.
Think about that - 50,000 making their way by chariot or horse or on foot to watch men fight, often to the death.
Although we are more civilized today, we haven't changed all that much.
We still love watching others play violent sports and make no mistake, football is a violent collision sport.
While I will be the first to acknowledge that never has the result of a sporting event changed the history of mankind, sports does play a vital role in our society, if for no other reason than providing a few hours of escape from reality.
It never ceases to amaze me the way people react to a football game. Go to a local watering hole while a football game -or several of them -are playing out on the big screens and instead of watching the game, watch the people who are watching the game. It is far more entertaining.
You will witness people who are quite professional performing their jobs going bonkers over a game between two teams located hundreds or thousands of miles away. You wonder why they care so much about the outcome.
Watching football is a group activity. It's no fun not having someone to receive your high-five or to share one of those "can you believe it'' moments.
Plus, football is the American game. That coming from a baseball guy who figured out quite a few years ago football now is the national pastime.
Football lends itself to upsets.
Just look at WVU's three BCS bowl wins. The Mountaineers were underdogs in all three games. Never does a week go by when Podunk U. upsets Powerhouse State, and that gets us excited.
We love upsets, except when it is our team that is getting upset.
I not only had an enjoyable experience and made some new acquaintances, but I learned something.
There really are two 8:30s in a day.
Contact Dave Poe at dpoe@newsandsentinel.com
