How do you know you’re ready for football season to start? You know you’re ready when you watch the Australian Rules Football highlights and say to yourself, “Hey, this ain’t half bad.” Or look back with fondness on the third quarter of an Arena League game you flipped past months ago, or wait with anticipation for the start of the replay of a 20 year old game on ESPN Classic, or hear John Facenda’s voice on a TV in another room and dash in to see what’s on, or watch your mailbox every day for the arrival of your Baylor Season tickets.

Yep, I’ve done all of the above and worse waiting for that sure and certain signal that football season in Central Texas is upon us: the arrival of the cricket hordes. I’m ready to put up with their constant chirping, the crunch when you drive over them on the road, and even the awful smell of thousands of dead crickets roasting on asphalt in the 103 degree heat, because they mean its time for football.

My family and I watch a lot of live football in Central Texas. My son’s JV games on Thursdays, the Corsicana High Varsity game on Fridays and as many Baylor games as I can reasonably get too. I love it all, I hope they do to. The pop of the pads, the cheers of the fans, the bad concessions and the half-time shows. This quintessential American and thoroughly Texan season is a part of the fabric of my life and I am ready for another.

Go Tigers. Sic ’em Bears.