Fall is an amazing time for sports fans. The baseball and soccer seasons are reaching their peak, college and professional football teams kick off their seasons, and October brings the start of professional hockey and basketball games. College football, in particular, holds a grip on our national consciousness. It allows us to express pride in our alma mater, and for many of us, that pride translates to regional alliances if the university we support is a state school. A college football game is so much more than just a game. The writers over at the Jesuit Post have only one college football team connected to their religious community — the Boston College Golden Eagles — but they get it. We love their take on what makes college football great: “Perhaps the true greatness we crave comes from a desire for unity, a want to come together, to play alongside one another, and to give our all for the flourishing of the whole. This is why the team-based nature of football is so attractive. Every player on every team absolutely needs one another to come together in order to succeed as a unit. No unity? No brotherhood? No championships.” As we gather with friends and family in front of a TV or around a tailgate this fall, we’ll be giving thanks for college football and the way it shapes us into community. Let’s cheer the excellence and dedication and teamwork we see our teams execute on the gridiron, and allow that enthusiasm to help us pursue those same virtues in our lives.
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