George Ferguson Column: Now it's time to sit back and watch the boys of fall

Let me ask you all one simple question — and I know it’s a Hank Williams Jr. special, but — are you ready for some football?

For many of you reading this, I already know the answer. But for me, the start of the local football season couldn’t get here any soon enough.

I’ll admit, it’s been trying, thinking about Northern football without head coach Mark Samson. For me, for all of us who know him so well, and for the entire Montana State University-Northern program, coach Samson not being with his Lights this season is going to be hard. It’s already been hard, and it won’t go away anytime soon.

Having said that, it’s time to let the games begin. It’s time to let the kids play. It’s time to enjoy the game of football on the Hi-Line, in all its passion, glory and pageantry. From Havre High games on Friday nights, to Saturday afternoon with the Lights, to all the wonderful eight-man and six-man games up and down the Hi-Line, there really isn’t anything else like this time of year around here.

Football in our neck of the woods is special. It’s a time when we can all come together for a commonality, and that is we, as a community, love our football. Whether it’s Havre, The Northern Lights nation, or the Pioneers, the Bears, the Knights and so many more, football is about community, and that’s what makes the fall so wonderful.

And that’s a big reason why I hope the nine kids who want to play football in Fort Benton get to do just that. It would be a crying shame if they don’t. Those kids, like all kids who love the game, deserve the fall, they deserve to have their special moment, their time under the lights, on the gridiron.

Actually, we all deserve it. As a community, we need to just sit back, relax and enjoy watching the young men who passionately put on the colors of Havre High, MSU-Northern, Rocky Boy, Harlem, Chester/J-I and all points in between, do what they do, which is play the sport the love, with pride and passion and dedication to their school, their community and to themselves.

This isn’t about anything else but the Boys of Fall Right now. Kenney Chesney sure did get it right when he wrote that song.

Oh, and to answer my I own question, heck yes, I’m ready for some football. And a lot of it.