The Bus Stops Here: Déjà Vu…

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Parcells, Green, Coughlin and Gibbs. Who would’ve thought? I remember these names were big when I was a kid. Now? Now I’m going to be sitting down on Sundays teaching my children the history of the “guys wearing those funny headsets.” I’ll get to show them that football isn’t about end zone dances, cell phones or Sharpies, that football isn’t all about the dollar signs or how many zeroes you have following them. Right now, football has turned over an old page. And to quote a famous Doc, we have gone “Back to the Future.”

The old days are here again! Time for the rivalries to shine! Let’s see the Hogs and the Jungle. I want to watch some smash mouth football. In-yer-face-till-you-can’t-handle-it football. We’ve gone back to a time where coaches treated everyone the same. Where you were yelled at, scolded, and often humiliated over a bonehead mistake. It won’t matter if your last name is Owens, Moss, or Holmes. You look at a coach cross-eyed and you’ll have your bags packed by morning. That’s a guarantee. That is the football that I want to see.

The rivalries… Oh the rivalries have returned. The Skins and the Boys! The Cats and the Dogs! Something to be excited about now! As much as I love fantasy football, it has, in a way, dulled the emotion of the game. We now root for individual players to do well. Before I knew of FF, it was all about one team. No individuals. You were either Orange and Brown, Silver and Black, Red and Gold… etc., etc. You literally wore your teams on your sleeves. How many of us old folks had the team lunch boxes? The pennants on the walls? The heavy winter coats and even the little knitted caps bearing “our” team’s emblems? That’s what I’m talking about! Those were the good old days. Now it’s posters of a single star player. It’s today’s superstars whose jerseys are decorating our youth.

But now we have something to look forward to next season. We have some of the finest old school coaches back in the game. They bring with them all the things that made football great. They will bring the smash mouth plays. They will bring back the rivalries. A couple may even bring back a dynasty. No cookie-cutter franchise molds with these guys. It’s the “my way or the highway” mentality. I can feel it. I can see it. I can almost taste it. The excitement has returned. And even though this year’s playoffs are still underway, I am already abuzz with anticipation for the upcoming season. I feel like a kid again.

 
Tony Eggleton can usually be found in the forums, posting his thoughts on subjects ranging from Dallas’ running back situation to Bloom County cartoons under the username Slowkidz. He’s always happy to stop and talk; just don’t get him started on Cleveland’s quarterback controversy…