I Like Football. It Is Neat.

Myself being the astute intellectual that I am, find myself in a range of complicating situations as a result of my affinity towards organized sports, which many deem decidedly non-intellectual. Okay, that never happens, but exploring that muddled grey area in society between the "jocks" and the "nerds" certainly makes for some fascinating literature, does it not? It sure does! Great idea, me! We'll go out for pancakes later as a reward!

For the most part, I find myself mainly dabbling in the culture of the cerebral douchebag; that being blogging, television of the "not Two and a Half Men" variety, cinema, literature and the occasional odd poetry slam. But there is one deep passion I hold that separates me from my horn-rimmed glasses wearing bretheren, I fuggin' love football.

Most of the friends in whom I share a lot of common interests with seem unable to comprehend my obsession with the sport. Sports, at their core, are pretty stupid. What the appeal is in a bunch of men running and hurting each other to score made-up points, I am not particularly sure, but it has had me by the cuff for most of my life. In terms of athleticism, I would consider myself average, perhaps a bit above average. At best. What I'm trying to say is, my immense talent on the field in the sport of football is probably not playing a big role in my penchant for the game.

Instead, I think that football is given a bad wrap. Though it is a sport carried out by some of the most bumbling of physical freaks and mental dumbasses, looking down from the press boxes, football is really the world's most complex game of chess. I think what really fascinates me about the sport is the strategy, the match-ups, the scheming. There is both a serious science and art that comes with analyzing, drafting and developing college level talent, assembling a playbook that best suits your squad's strengths and weaknesses, and calling the plays that best take advantage of your opponent. Sure, it may be a game of brutes at the surface, but I feel if you give any self-proclaimed nerd an Xbox controller hooked up to a copy of Madden '12 hacked to replace all of the football-centric polygons with dragons and knights, they would totally be like woah this is super gnarly man. Definitely.