"The Other Guys"

Credit: Melina Vastola

I've heard a lot of chatter over the past 24 hours or so about whether or not football "is back." I don’t know about you, but I have always thought of football as existing in a binary state; that is to say its either in season or its not. If its on my television and I can watch it live, football is back in my book. However, this definition doesnt sit well for many fans. Plenty of folks make the argument that unless it is a meaningful game with a meaningful outcome and a score that will be chiseled into the granite annuls of Football History forever and ever and ever, it is not "real" football. It is this logic that I take issue with. After all, more "friendly" soccer games are played every year than competitive ones, and soccer fans around the world actively watch and attend them with the fervency and attention given to competitive matches. I suppose it amounts to a vastly different cultural gap between the two sports, which have been cultivated and entrenched over decades.