All football, all the time
Here is a mostly complete list of the football games I consumed in whole or in part over the last few days:
Patriots/Seahawks
Rams/49ers
Memphis/Boise State
Georgia/Western Kentucky
Ohio State/Texas
Arizona State/Texas A&M
Mississippi State/Minnesota
Oklahoma State/Oregon
Oklahoma/Michigan
Tennessee/Georgia Tech
Falcons/Steelers
Jets/Titans
Saints/Lions
Cowboys/Giants
I also managed to play a complete round of golf, watch the Braves own the Phillies, drop my son off at a friend’s house, hit the grocery store, pick my son up from basketball practice, cook an entire roast chicken dinner, check out the FIBA Women’s gold medal match, hit the outlet mall, catch the new episode of “Lanterns,” and enjoy a dinner out on Saturday night. (Free plug: Pita in Southaven is terrific.)
As I juggled endless activities over the weekend, I faced the same conundrum with which many of us are grappling: While the return of football season is a great thing, the most immediate downside is that our free time is challenged in a tangible way. I squeezed in over a dozen football games the last few days, a substantial amount considering all the obligations on my plate, although still just a drop in the bucket considering the vast inventory of football that has suddenly become available to us. I understand that it may feel a bit gluttonous to try and consume so much football, but with only so many hours in a weekend, how do we maximize our time to get as much football in as possible? Here are a few lessons I’ve learned along the way.
1. Prioritize
This is probably the most important key to a successful football weekend: Pick one game that is most important to you and plan around that. I arrange most of my weekends around UGA games, and with an 11:30 AM kickoff on Saturday, I made sure I was home for that. The game was over midway through the second quarter, allowing me to flip to some other games. I also really wanted to watch Texas/Ohio State, so I made sure to shift tasks so that I’d be home for the majority of that one, although agreeing to a dinner out with my wife meant I had to miss the start of the game. Sacrifices, am I right?
2. Have a plan
There are also a couple of social media accounts (I like @TopTierStateX and @ProjSports) which list when and where everything is airing, making it simple to sort through and decide what you want to watch in which window. Going into the weekend without even a loose plan of attack is just setting yourself up for failure.
3. Sacrifice
As I mentioned above, watching every game you want to watch is a fun idea, but the older we get and the more life gets busy, the less feasible it is to think you can just park on the couch and watch football all weekend. To that end, it’s important to pick a few games that you’re willing to just punt on. For instance, Alabama/Kentucky seemed like an interesting game, but I decided to sacrifice that game in order to focus on others. There are levels to everything, even college football.
4. Listen
We often think about football as a viewing experience, but over the last few years, I’ve become more and more amenable to listening to football on the radio. Satellite radio is particularly great, because you can choose home or away broadcasts, which allows you to listen with prejudice and find out what various fanbases are feeling about their teams. (I also find myself frequently frustrated with certain announcers who don’t give out details as plays unfold.)
5. Embrace Tech
As good as I am with a remote control—some have said I’m the Michael Jordan of the remote, able to use either hand with elite quickness and skill—even I have my limits. A true game-changer is the ability to watch multiple games at once, whether on YouTube TV or even on Xfinity’s cable box. I also find myself using my phone to stream games while sitting in a parking lot or walking through the mall. Science has given us many gifts, it’s time we take advantage of them!
