Fall in Texas

It's fall in Texas.  No matter that the thermometer reads 93 degrees, no matter there the leaves won't turn until Thanksgiving, no matter that early morning doesn't bring the slightest hint of cool air--in Texas fall means football.  Friday night lights are blazing again while my granddaughter's high school team (no longer named the Redskins) are taking the field.  Across the state in towns too small to have a college team, high school football is king.

College football is on TV.  The Aggies are a team to watch, even without Johnny Football, even though we hate them for abandoning us and the beloved Thanksgiving game with Texas and moving to the SEC.  The Longhorns are embarrassingly bad.  I dread the October weekend when I have to watch a University of Texas game along with my nephew in Atlanta.  No one is a more rabid Longhorn fan.  I imagine he's already depressed after the team was trounced in their first game by BYU.

The city is ecstatic today.  The Texans won their first NFL season game after losing 14 in a row last year.  J.J. Watt, our city's hero, blocked a point-after-touchdown kick, something the commentators couldn't believe because such a thing almost never happens.  Will the season be better than last year's?  Couldn't be worse.  We're all crossing our fingers.