The Sunshine Empire

I’ve lived my entire life in the State of Florida. I say lived there as much as The Tick once said where you live is where you keep all your stuff. That being said I’ve always identified myself as someone that lived in Florida, not The South. In Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia, the ideal of being southern is almost a cult. I guess I’m trying to construct the first ever wall between The Sunshine Empire and the northern empire of the south. That being said I am heavily influenced by those to our north. My late Grandmother who grew up the child of a turpentine salesman in depression era Florida. My maternal step grandfather was the only member of his family born in Florida as opposed to Georgia.

My point is that my roots run deeper than most anyone on the Floridian peninsula. Those roots mean that there is only one sports season, football season. In the state of Florida football season is year round. That brings me to the reason for this rant. Football season is about upon us in The Sunshine Empire.

The Sunshine Empire is a football mad place and a place of football history. The Sunshine Empire is where Woody Hayes ended his career with a punch towards an opposing college football player. It was in The Sunshine Empire that Dan Marino and Jimmy Johnson had their NFL careers ended at the hands of the Jaguars. It was in The Sunshine Empire that Lindsay Scott put a dagger through my Gators hearts in 1980 on the way to a Georgia national title.

But now my Gators begin the college football season as the greatest preseason #1 by percentage ever with a Heisman winning quarterback. The defending National Champion Gators are the odds on favorite, but my scrappy Jaguars will surprise some people in the NFL. I’ll be there live for all of it, and hopefully it means good things for the Jaguars and Gators. I can only hope for the favorite football teams of The Sunshine Empire.