Yes, I watched the NFL draft this weekend—a lot of the draft. I don’t know why, but it dealt with football and when it comes to football, I’m a little bit addicted.

OK, a lot addicted. I guess being a little bit addicted is like being a little bit pregnant. You can’t be either.

I am even excited about mini-camps starting this week in the NFL, and I have a pretty good idea of how many days are left until the start of the college football season.

It’s not that I am obsessed with football. I don’t get the NFL Network, but I appreciate the game. I’m a Dallas Cowboy fan, and I root for one of the college teams in the state (hint: they wear crimson jerseys).

To me, it’s the spectacle of a football game that I enjoy. The sort of spectacle that surrounds a football game is not shared by many sports.

There’s the bands, the cheerleaders, the angry fan in the fourth row who has no idea what holding is—only that the other team always does it and his team doesn’t.

It’s the fact the season starts on in the oppressive heat of summer and ends with fans bundled up in 15 layers and a sleeping bag.

It’s a physical game played by men who wear their emotions on their sleeve.

Yes, other sports have portions of that spectacle but not the level of football.

Of all the levels of football, the one I probably enjoy the most is high school. It’s what the sport was meant to be. It is a sport where boys start playing as freshmen and finish playing as men as seniors.

Injuries cut seasons short, and a 10-yard chain on the sideline measures disappointment.

Football and sports are like life. There are winners and losers, and all that separates them is the effort and preparation put in before the game is even played.

Regardless of the outcome of the season, though, there are still the proud parents, the band that enjoyed every moment of every game and the cheerleaders who still manage to smile in the face of their team’s defeat.

The draft to me is just the start of another football season, and it doesn’t end until my Cowboys find another way to lose a first-round playoff game.