Sports Columnist

Every college football game has been cancelled!

Troy State’s home opener with App State, Alabama-Southern Miss, and Auburn-LSU, all have been cancelled because of the actions of terrorists.

What looked like a football game in Troy on Saturday afternoon was quickly squashed Thursday by the SEC, Big Ten and Big 12, who all decided not to play football this weekend. After the NFL made their decision not to play there was a domino effect of cancellations and postponements. To my knowledge, no major college football program is playing on Saturday.

It was another big victory for terrorism.

Take football away from the United States a Saturday and Sunday in the fall and you’ve struck a blow in the hearts of millions and millions of Americans.

Yes, I’m upset we don’t have college football in Troy this weekend. I was ready to enjoy all the fun you have on college football Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

I’m glad the high school’s have elected to play. Pike Lib travels to Meadowview, G.W. Long to Brantley, Lafayette at Pike County and Goshen heads to Barbour County.

I’m not being disrespectful in wanting to see our college’s play football this Saturday. I’ve grieved as much as anyone over what happened to our country and my prayers have been with the people that have lost loved ones.

I’m as American as you can get. I love my country! But I personally feel that the more we take away from the people of our country because of terrorism, the more total impact these acts of terrorism have made.

I know it is not politically correct to think football is so important in our society, because it is, after all, only a game. But my feeling is that every football stadium in America would have honored these brave people in New York and Washington D.C. that have lost friends and loved ones.

I’m sure this weekend, I will still be glued to the television watching the recovery and the news events that will be taking place. The grieving will still go on.

I’m sure most everyones major concerns about playing football this weekend was the fear that the terrorists might hit again at a stadium with 70,000-plus fans.

Airline travel has pretty much been closed down and teams and fans all over the country would have had difficulty getting to game sites.

This is a very sad time for the people of the United States of America and I can certainly live without football for one weekend in honor of those Americans who lost their lives because of terrorism. But it’s not going away. As long as we have insane people in this world, terrorism will be with us.

Locally, I hope TSU can reschedule their game with App State. It’s the best home game on our schedule this season. As it looks, the NFL and colleges may have to move their schedule back one week, which means the Super Bowl will be played in February.

This weekend had some of the season’s best match-ups scheduled. Washington at Miami, Tennessee at Florida, Auburn at LSU, BYU at Mississippi State, Notre Dame at Purdue and Georgia Tech at FSU. Hopefully, they’ll reschedule these games for the last week of the year. The cancellations may have helped some teams. I’m sure Tennessee was not ready for Florida, nor was Washington ready for Miami. I think LSU’s chances of beating Auburn would have been much better this weekend.

What’s important is that our country gets back on its feet.

I really believe the terrible events that took place on Tuesday will help our nation grow closer together and stronger then ever.

American’s have always feared acts of terrorism, especially when they’ve traveled abroad. It was hard to believe that something the magnitude of what happened on Tuesday could happen on American soil.

We’ve always had the fear that one day an insane person would launch a nuclear missile at our nation. Those two jetliners full of fuel that crashed into and demolished the two World Trade Center buildings have made those fears come true.

With fears that terrorists are still alive and well on U.S. soil, I think football should take a weekend off. I hope by next week all of the terrorists have been rounded up and Americans may once again enjoy their favorite sport…football!

God bless America!