Tick tock the clock is counting down

On Instagram, an app that I use daily, I receive pictures from the NFL counting down the days until the start of football season.  They have been doing this for months now.  The pictures always have a football player and the player's number is used as the countdown.  Clever.  But it is starting to get on my nerves.  Football already?  Baseball season isn't over yet and although I'm not as devoted as my mother I'm caught up in the drama of will the Tampa Bay Rays catch up or not.  And now I'm suppose to move on to football?  Where is the loyalty?  Can we finish up one pro sport before the next one starts?

Now I love NFL football.  I live for Sundays.  It is my religion in the fall and winter.  But with it comes anxiety and stress and seriously I have too much of that right now in my life with the end of summer, the start of school and all it brings, and my new vehicle.  (Oh, woe is me, right?  I'm not really complaining and whining.  These are little things in life compared to the biggies other people are dealing with, but I have a blog to write.)  I'm just not ready for all of that to begin.  Especially when the weather outside is humid and above 90 degrees.  Especially when I receive Twitter and Facebook updates linking articles to injuries my team is suffering in preseason or to articles about how lousy my team is expected to play this year.

I do not follow preseason...much.  I read the paper and wonder why the writers are getting so fired up about a game that isn't really a game.  They speculate about how well a team is going to be based on practices and preseason games and I shake my head.  Whatever.  Preseason is a NFL money maker where they try to lure in the fans that can't afford to pay the big bucks during the regular season.  These fans watch mediocre practices where the no names are working harder then the celeb athletes because they are trying to earn a spot on the team so that they have the chance to get their names in lights.  I don't believe that preseason is a precursor to the year and besides more chance of injury for players I don't see the point.  So I try to ignore it.  I don't get fired up until the month of September.

That being said...check out the picture Steelers posted on Instagram that I took a picture of just to get me motivated for the upcoming year.

Oh, yeah, baby.  Football is coming.  Are you ready?