The Intended Football Season

As I write, the NFL Thursday Night "Kick-Off" game is delayed because of the threat of lightening. A week before, a South Carolina-North Carolina game starting off  the college football season was delayed mid-game because of a thunderstorm.

This is the price that's paid. Football was never meant to be played this early in the year --  nor is it supposed to be played in January, unless it's for southern-based bowl games. Even if kids are back at school, this is still summer, and it's the time for dangerous thunderstorms.

Football is meant to be played in an 8-10 week period between late September and early December. That's how the college kids who created and then coached it in New England in the late 19th Century imagined it. Although extreme summer heat or extreme winter weather could occur during these weeks, the chances are far less likely. Autumn is the most moderate season of all.

If you disagree, I agree that 45 and raining is unpleasant. It can happen in late October. Anywhere in America, however, the chance of 0 and snowing at that time of year are far, far smaller.

Hazardous outdoor conditions, whether from summer storms or winter cold, are far less likely in the real autumn football was supposed to be played in.

So I find it silly that people, every year, complain of the extension of baseball season into late October (which has been going on as long as I remember). Or that the NHL and NBA seasons go into June. Every year, people remark on the absurdity of this. But they never remark on the absurdity of the too-long football season that begins dangerously early and ends dangerously late.