More To Life Than Sports?

In my lil world after football season and spring training there is a lull that I hate.  I'm always looking forward to kickoff.  I do love Alabama football.  Love watching it, love discussing it.  I think I've seen the SEC and NC games five times already.  I can fast forward to my favorite parts.

I like golf but I'd rather play it and I could (gasp and swoons!) care less if Tiger Woods makes a comeback or not. When I'm playing, I don't wonder what Tiger would do on this hole, I just whack it and have fun.

Baseball, boring.  Basketball, boring.  A bunch of thugs and roid users. My daddy is trying to get me interested in NASCAR.  God love him. 

I'm also trying to get over all these athletes in reality shows.  Can there be bigger idiots than Hank and Kendra and does anyone REALLY care what they do from day to day?  Then there's that new show about NBA wives.  I think it's just a way to air dirty laundry.  Hey, give the rag mags a call!

I do kinda keep up with the world of sports even after football season.  It's not by choice though.  Each morning when I drop my daughter off at her school I go to this lil cafe and sit with a bunch of men.  Sometimes my girlfriend joins in but usually its just me.  They range in age from fifty-three to eighty-one.

They're a bunch of down to earth, rowdy, Southern men.  I love  sitting and listening to them.  We also discuss politics but  it's the sports page that gets discussed the most.  There are a few that talk about making their bets and how just one game threw them off and one day "I'm gonna win big".  I think probably everyone has made bets on their favorite team before. 

All this has been going through my mind of late and looking forward to summer when my daughter gets out of school and moving my mailbox to the pool.  You can do that right? 

This past Sunday, however, all this came to a screeching halt.  One of "my men", as I refer to them, and his wife was involved in a "I don't know how they made it" accident on Alabama hwy 69.  The man who pulled out in front of them had a two year old in the truck with him.  He was on his cell phone.  Making a bet.

Thankfully the child is ok and he was treated and released.  My friends wife is gonna be ok but my friend is on a respirator.  Head trauma.  Broke neck.  He has children and grandchildren.  A good man.

I'm not trying to depress anyone and this isn't an anti gambling ad nor am I preaching about talking on your cell while driving. I think sometimes we all need a wake up call that there is more life than the sports world.  Unreal as that may sound. 

Now instead of paying attention to all the crazy stuff going on with who's gonna get drafted in what round, and the mess with baseball and basketball, I've been calling and asking "Have you heard anything yet?" or "Does any of the kids need anything?" 

It's always amazing to me that all it takes is one phone call to rearrange our priorties real fast quick and in a hurry.