One Billion Dollars

The Dallas Cowboys recently opened their new palace with a preseason game against the Tennesse Titans. While the fans came to see the game, the story in the days following have been revolving around the biggest feature in the new stadium, the gigantic tv’s above the field.

Jerry Jones has always been known for thumbing his nose at the league, but now he’s finally gone and done it. A punter for the Titans hit the telvision during the game and now some are claiming the screens are too low. The criticism that has come Jones’s way is well warrented. If you are going to spend a god-awful amount of money on a stadium, you better damn well have a good plan of how everything’s going to work.

It just seems like professional sports leagues are pricing the common fan out of the game. The cheapest tickets are $59 a game for 10 games and the most expensive cost a total of $1,250 for the season including a $5,000 seat option fee. After the news of ticket prices at the new Yankee stadium earlier this year, it just seems like owners are designing stadiums for only the rich and wealthy.  I mean for most Americans spending 59 dollars on a ticket is stretching the budget a little bit but you probably won’t be able to buy single game tickets at the new stadium anyway. At this time you have to buy season tickets.

So, the question of the day. In this day and age of sports television and sports’ packages, is it really worth it to spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to see a professional game in person? I mean, you can see the game just as well from the comfort of you own home right?

Favre’s Back

Well, here we go again. Brett Favre is coming back for his 19th season, this one with the Minnesota Vikings. Without question he is a sure fire hall of famer, but do we have to go through this circus every summer. Will he deliver the Vikings to the Super Bowl, probably not. Do they have a better chance with Favre than with Sage Rosenfels or any of their other QB’s? Yes.

If he wanted to come back all along, why not just make the decision right away. If he wasn’t sure, then why announce his retirement only to change his mind a few weeks later. Will his short tenures with the Jets and Vikings tarnish his legendary career? I don’t believe so. Will his inability to make up his mind on whether he wants to play another season tarnish his image? Absolutely. Every summer the Brett Favre show televised on ESPN comes to town and camps out until a decision is made and then again he never commits when he does decide.

Favre comes across as a great guy and a class act. He’s one of the best QB’s of all time and he should not be forced to retire if he doesn’t want to end his football career. The Packers had made an investment when they drafted Aaron Rodgers and they wouldn’t wait for Favre to gracefully exit stage left. Now he’s with the Vikings and paired up with a Pro Bowl RB in Adrian Peterson which potentially could be a great combination. But as last year showed, Favre is no longer invincible and can catch the injury bug. As any 40 year old can tell you, its harder to recover and stay healthy at that age. But he’s going to have a dynamite running game in Minnesota which he did not have in New York.

But I for one can’t wait to see what happens when the Vikings travel the four hours to the friendly confines of Lambeau Field.

Fight songs

I was just thinking that some of the things that makes football, especially at  the high school level, great are the sounds. That’s right, I’m talking about the bands. When I was in junior high and high school I was a member of the marching band, which provided for a lot of memories. Our fight song was based on the Notre Dame fight song so I’m a little bit biased but it’s one of my favorites.

Many high schools have fight songs based on a college fight song. So I was wondering what is your high school’s fight song ? What college is the music from? Or has the music been created specifically for your school by someone? I’m interested in what your favorite college fight song  is (other than Iowa’s or Nebraska’s of course).

Some of my favorite fight songs are Tennessee’s “Rocky Top”, Michigan’s “Hail to the Victors”, and USC’s “Fight On”. Even though that as a Hawkeye fan, that last one still brings back some bad memories.

So here goes nothing…

Ok, so I’ve created a blog. Now what. I was motivated to do this, this past weekend, by a movie that I had seen where a woman had created a blog. It had a purpose and a goal and it turned out to be very successful for her. While I don’t have any grand illusions of that happening here, I just felt that this was something I could do that would be fun.

As for high school football, I’ve always loved it. Growing up in small town Iowa, it was always fun to go to the football game on Friday nights. Most of the community would show up and support the kids even when wins were short to come by. The entire atmosphere is what makes high school football so great. The stands full of fans, the marching band playing the fight song, the stadium lights illuminating the field and then there’s the game itself. Man, I love football.

After graduating from college, my career took me to Omaha, Nebraska. I have lived here for a few years now but have yet to attend a high school football game in the metro area. I don’t want to write a blog that is all me, me, me. So my goal this fall is to attend a different high school game in the area every week. I want to see if the games, the atmosphere, the fans, the food, the stadiums, etc. is as great in Nebraska as it is in Iowa.

Well, I’m not sure if anyone else will read this besides myself but I’m going to proceed as if somebody, someday will read this. With the football season soon coming upon us, I have been looking at the schedules and trying to decide which games might be excellent matchups that I would want to attend. Right now, I have only week one pretty much decided because it is a rivalry game that’s in my backyard and that is Papillion-La Vista vs. Papillion-La Vista South. But any help and suggestions would be great.

What makes high school football great in the metro? Is there the passion for high school football in the big schools that is often times found in the small town? Are the games more fun to watch in the city because there is talent on the teams that often is lacked in the small town? Do the fans turn out for the games in the big city like they do in the rural area?

These are some of the questions that I’m on a mission this fall to try to answer. Only 12 days until football. I am so ready for the season to begin. High school, college, pro. It’s all good.