My Football Life

Watching Coach Belichick's A Football Life on the NFL network taught me two very important things.

The first is this: football is the most visceral and memorable of all the major sports. And I'm not just talking on the field of play, y'all. I'm talking about for us. For the fans.

Hear me out.

They say smell is the sense most tied to memory. And I agree. I remember getting day drunk and going to a TMBG concert in the early 90's with my boy Big Nick only because of the perfume a young lady in front of us was wearing. Big Nick has the same memory.

True story.

But watching highlights from the Patriots' 2009 season during A Football Life allowed me to recall, with absolute clarity, where I was, who I was with and what I was doing during each game. In some instances, I could tell you exactly what I was wearing, eating and even drinking.

Every detail comes racing back.

Does that mean the collective senses used when watching football highlights are the most tied to memory? I don't know. We'll need far more empirical data but it appears to be the case for me.

And, in the spirit of being honest, it really is all about me. Isn't it?

Oh, and the second, less insightful thing watching A Football Life taught me was that Bill Belichick is, hands down, the gayest rollerskating pirate I've ever seen.



Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure a gay pirate is the only kind that actually goes rollerskating.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.