In spite of the oppressive heat in this part of the country (and everywhere else in the USA it seems) there’s beginning to be a hint that Football Season is just around the corner. Aside from the preseason hype with polls and prognostications and pomposity, what are some signs that your own senses pick up on that let you know the time is about right for Football?
The baseball trading deadline. The teams that are doing well load up and the rest of the teams are playing out the rest of the season.
Right now everyone’s personal favorite team has a chance to win the SB! We’re all thinking “This is our year!” Yeah!
That’s how it is as a Washington fan anyways… then reality sets in.
Steaming black guy heads, of course.
When I said “your senses” I was referring to those little things you see, hear, smell or feel (maybe even taste) to let you know the summer heat and humidity (if that applies in your locale) may be giving way to the early fall. Around these parts we start looking for “the nip” in the air, even if it’s a hot day and there’s plenty more summertime fun to come, grass to cut, outdoor chores to tend to.
Further north I guess it’s more realistic to feel the season changing, but there are those days when the air is a little clearer, there’s a peculiar smell in the air (even if there’s no fire to fill the air with wood smoke or the aroma of burning leaves). And those little buzzing bugs you can hear in the tall grass or on the crops have a particular sound this time of year. Even a rainy day will have a feel unlike those summer showers.
Other little things peculiar to your area that signal football weather is approaching are what I’m hoping to survey in this thread. Big or small, maybe even something only you tend to notice. But what lets you know kickoff time is on the way?
I live in Florida. We only have three seasons: spring, summer and Christmas. I guess car flags are the best marker, but that’s more of a “football season is here” thing.
Even in Wisconsin, I can’t think of too many things in August that give the sense of football coming. I think the most obvious one would be the days getting shorter. Now, it’s still light past 8pm, but it’s not bright, and certainly by 9pm, the sun’s gone down. This week, we’ve finally had a couple mornings that have been relatively cooler, but that’s compared the unusally hot/humid days we’ve had the past few weeks. Give it a couple more weeks, and I’d say temps under 60° at sunrise, will add to it. I agree with Zeldar about getting that clearer air, too.
A humiliating kick in the crotch.
That’ll do it! Also, grass stains on your elbows and knees (or clothes in those areas if you’re chicken enough).
The World Series starts. I have a hard time getting excited about football before baseball is over.
It’s the feel of late Summer. I was just commenting on this the other day. I played football for years, and there’s something unmistakable about this time of year that always reminds me of football season.
I think it’s:
- The blazing dog-day heat. I remember practicing for hours and hours and hours in this heat.
- The late-Summer dry period. The heat and the dryness gives the grass a tough, crunchy, brittle feel, especially on a mowed surface. It’s, again, unmistakable…especially if you bend down and put one hand in it as if you were in a three-point.
- Speaking of: that smell of tough, crunchy grass that has just been mowed. Utterly different from the smell of rainy-season cutting. It’s less green. It has a sweeter, softer smell, like hay.
My wife and I were playing disc golf at a local city park this past week. It was 98 degrees, the grass had just been mowed, with that smell surrounding us, and I was drinking an old-school lemon-lime Gatorade. The feeling of deja vu was so intense that it almost made me dizzy.
“It smells like football out here,” I said.
Getting my rules packet in the mail and hitting the first association meeting of the season!
When I get my Fantasy league invites. Time to check out all the FF websites.
This year is so damn hot, football is way off my radar. The sports wrapup shows are discussing it , so I am aware. Just not engaged in it yet.
Blurb on TV that 1 coach and 2 players died in football practice. It is too hot for football.