Welcome back, college football... it’s like you never left

We’ve talked about a lot of stuff over the past eight months. Sanctions. Recruiting. Kelly Bryant. Sanctions. Barry Odom. Sanctions.

We do this because the #content machine must be fed at all times or it will come for our families, but also because we love it. We love Mizzou sports, including the brutal, ridiculous game of football. (Relax, folks. Football is both brutal and ridiculous, but that doesn’t mean it’s not highly enjoyable.)

Over the next few days — as he has over the past several months — Zach will be in the comments counting down the days until Laramie with uniform numbers. As we slowly close in on zero, we’ll continue to pontificate and wax poetic about the coming season and all the hopes, fears and thoughts we have.

But, admittedly, it was nice to have all of that wiped from our minds last night as college football kicked off its 2019 campaign in the messiest, funniest, most Floridian way possible.

It was the type of game we’ve come to expect from August/September college football — lots of dumb penalties and late turnovers made the game just about swampy as the state it was held in. Football has always been a sport based in catharsis, each play ending in a brutal collision of bodies. You may not like it, but there’s a reason no one around the globe is using “the beautiful game” moniker for the sport of Vontaze Burfict and Kam Chancellor. There’s a reason the best players in the league are dropping everything to retire before they hit their 30s.

The inherent risk of violence makes it all the more relieving when we get to enjoy a game as comically messy as this one. It’s a reminder that, for all the emotional investment we put into it, it’s still just a game, a game that is enjoyable when played well and just enjoyable (in a different way) when it isn’t. Maybe that’s just me — maybe sloppy football makes you angry, even when it’s not the University of Missouri-Columbia Tigers on the field. In that case you can stop reading... if you haven’t already!

At the end of the day, the guys sporting our favorite-colored laundry are just kids. Even more so, they’re kids who aren't being fairly compensated! At the very least, as they’re risking their bodies to entertain us and seek their own spot in school lore, the whole experience should be fun for everyone. And you have to admit, it’s kind of fun to watch a potential game-winning drive start just outside the red zone, flip the field in just a few “plays” and then work itself aaaaaaaalllllllllllll the way back to other side... even if it took a bunch of bungled blocks and coverages to get there. Maybe it would have been better to watch the team not in the SEC East win... but as long as Missouri continues the trend of gator whooping they’ve established over the past few years, it won’t matter all that much anyway.

All this to say (TL;DR for all you internet savvy folks), remember to enjoy this college football season, especially when you aren't emotionally invested. Take in a non-Missouri game. Appreciate the sport and the fact we get to enjoy it at all. In just a few months it will all be gone, and we’ll have to last another eight months before we get to do it all over again.