And Here We...Go...

Like any joy in life, you want to do it to the best of your ability and to do it as frequently as possible.

For me, a couple of my joys in life are to watch football and to write. As a bright idea, there came the idea to do both; write about the football games I watch. Even though there are a million of sportswriters and critics and such everywhere, I've decided to make mine a little different.

Instead of bringing the insight of just one game or one team (even though it is impossible to not be bias towards any one team), I still find the pleasure to watch the best players in the game that I love, no matter what team they play for.

However, since I also realize that there is more to life than football (and I'm just 21 years old, I don't have money to get DirectTV and get 10 games of football at one time, but I do try to go to a local Buffalo Wild Wings to try and watch as many games as I can at once), I'm only able to see the prime-time games (the one that everyone in the nation can watch), as well as the locally broadcasted games going on Sunday afternoon and evening.

In order to make it easy to understand if I've seen the games or not (because I'll eventually see the highlights either on SportsCenter or NFL.com), here's a "mock" version of how I'll write about the game:

Watched the game exclusively (meaning that it was the only game that I watched at the time).

Team A...blah blah blah.

Watched the game (I watched the game, but either flipped threw the channels to watch another game, or was watching other games at the same time).

Team B...blah blah blah.

Watched highlights (Was only able to watch highlights, but still extensive).

Team C...blah blah blah.

And...I need to set myself straight and honest here. I am from the Chicagoland area...thus...I am, almost by default, a Bears fan. However, I will do my honest best at not "favoring" or "showing resentment" towards them because of it. As well as teams, I have certain players that I favor over others (who writes about football and doesn't favor certain players...I mean, isn't that why we all love fantasy football?).

I like to see the amazing raw talent of the players in the NFL, but what I don't like to see is the egos bigger than their talents. I want to see the likes of a Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, or Jerry Rice...someone who doesn't showboat themselves, whose egos are smaller than the toddler's first football, but still shows that he has fun, and still puts 100 percent effort on every single play, no matter if it's the first play of preseason or the game-winning play in the Super Bowl.

Talent is talent, and only a handful number of people have the talent to be the best players in their position, but even a lesser handful actually use their talent, not for the better of themselves, but for the better of the team, and of the better of the sport itself. Those are the players I look at; those are the players that catch my attention.

I've been watching the game, inspired by the play of John Elway, Brett Favre, Dan Marino, and Steve Young. I've watched countless NFL Films about these Hall of Famers, or future Hall of Famers.

The classics: Johnny Unitas, Jim Brown, Lance Alworth, Deacon Jones, Dick Butkus, Larry Wilson, and many, many others. I guess it was these players that made me fall in love with football so much. It's these players, and their character, and the way they played the sport with integrity and enthusiasm that was not easily matched by the players they played with.

I think there's a part of me that still wants the "old school" football to come back and be played on live TV, but the game's changed. It's gotten more sophisticated and technical, but I think the mentality of playing the game the way it's meant to be played, finding the true meaning of why people play football, that's what I want to write about.

The players (and the coaches) who are involved in football because of the love of the sport, every single aspect of it. The strategy, the excitement, the thrill, and the ability to perform at one's best in no matter what they do.

I love the strategy of the game, finding ways to perform at one's best in a fair, competitive manner, and I love to see players and coaches reflect that.

Even though my future articles might seem like it all involves strategy and insight, but there will be opinion thrown in as a conclusion to my "summary" or "synopsis," and that's where I'll look at the integrity of the game, on whether or not I thought the team (or players) did their best to win the game, or if they were just playing not to lose (trust me, there is a difference).

I just try to view the game the way a little kid with a big heart views the game. I hope you're able to feel my passion about the game after reading my articles. I don't write to be right (even though I still do my best to try and be accurate with what I say), but I write so I can hopefully install this great passion that I have for the sport of football to other people, and for people to be inspired to do what they love, to do it to their best, and to do it as frequently as possible.

I hope to do it with humble confidence and a patient but determined focus that people like me would want to write about.

"It's not a matter of winning or losing, it's a matter of how you play the game."

—J. A. Greene