Looking Forward to Training Camp

No, I don’t mean Spring Training.

The Browns just finished their triumphant 2009 season, improving from last season by one win (at least that is how they would spin it), and I am done with football for the year. I don’t need to know who wins the Super Bowl, I’ve had enough football for this season.

Please don’t take my tone to be that of a snob here, I have no regrets from last season. Sure, I was hurt by the losing and the controversy, both during and after the season, but in reality, I just love the game. I love sports.

I don’t like losing; I just love to see the competition and all the goes into a long and drawn out season. However, there is simply nothing like the feelings that I get as Training Camp approaches.

The air seems a little more crisp, the sun doesn’t seem to burn as much, and the grass clippings seem to have that much more of a smell to them.

Oh its time my friends. When you get those sensory inputs, there is no mistaken that football is on its way.

I don’t ever get that feeling from the other sports. I know baseball is coming only because the talking heads on the radio tell me it is coming. I know basketball is coming because the Browns have lost their tenth game of the season. Yet, as much as the Browns dagger my heart each and every year, I can’t imagine going another year without optimism.

No, the Browns are not going to win the Super Bowl next year. Yea, they most likely are going to blow their first three rounds of draft picks. Sure, Brady Quinn will win the starting job -- only to blow out his achilles tendon right after we trade off Derek Anderson for a 6th rounder -- but when it really comes down to it… the pads smacking, the dirt flying and the adrenaline rush that I get from the comfort of my leather recliner all re-assure me that as long as there is an orange helmet on the field, that I will be entertained (positively or negatively) for three hours and that my wife will leave me alone for that duration.

That is love my friends.

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