Auburn - Georgia game, SEC, Hits, and Testosterone

Weird to have my first post on a football game, but it is what was going on as I do the edits. Auburn has annihilated Georgia. They clearly should be rated #1. Say what you want, the SEC is going away the TOUGHEST conference in college football. Just being undefeated in that conference should be good to vault one ahead of any other teams in the country with similiar records.

Did anyone out there catch the hit on Georgia's Reggie Brown? As an ex-defensive back I have had the pleasure of ringing a few bells, but that one was just SAVAGE. I would not have been surprised if it had killed him. I was glad to see him get up and motor off under his own power. Nominal Me has a nice commentary on the event.

All that reminds me of how I felt, and how I tried to describe my feelings to my wife after watching the (very good) movie "Friday Night Lights." I was not a good athlete in HS, but football allowed someone of minimal talents and alot of desire and aggressiveness to learn some lessons that have stood me well so far in life.

1) You can always dig down deep and pull up more than you think you can.
2) NEVER quit
3) The most talented guy can be, and often is beaten, by the guy who has more HEART
4) It takes more class to be a gracious winner than a gracious loser, and the corrollary:
You don't spike the ball till you are in the end zone, and trash talk before the game is over is an invitation to be abused
5) Pain is not death. Athletics teaches you that you can and should continue to push yourself when you are hurt sometimes
6) and this was the hardest to explain to my wife -- Testosterone, violent contact, and aggressiveness are a part of being a guy, or at least they were a part of THIS guy and alot of my friends.

I told my wife that I missed the contact, the "hits" about as much as anything, even the ones in which I got the bad end of the deal. Even at late middle age, I still remember them with fondness. Non-jocks (including the guy who wrote the book on which the movie was based) just don't understand, and love to sneer at balding guys with pot bellies remembering the "glory days." As I said, I was never a star, and did not really deserve to be on the field with alot of the guys I played with. But the game made me a better person, and continues to make young men better people, even if you have to work through the swagger sometimes.