For most of us football connoisseurs,  the season is over. Full from our seasonal dish, left with a tryptophane hangover, we put away our foam fingers and face paint. We hang up our Jerseys ( or if you are a fanatic- hang them AFTER sending them to the cleaners), put up our football chip and dip set, and pack away the NFL team logo napkins, paper plates and cups until preseason 2008. We sit in front of the tube, with the remote in hand, idly flipping through channels, hoping for anything other than re-runs of " Charmed " or "Law and Order".

     Your friends suggest basketball, or NASCAR, and dutifully we serve up a helping each, before realizing neither is a fitting dessert, a bland ending to the richest meal you have had in years! Neither dish has that perfect blend of ingredients that afford you the flavor, the adrenaline rush equivalent to the pigskin spiraling like  ham through the air at rocket speed with laser precision hitting its mark- like threading a needle, or picking up rice with chopsticks! Neither spices you up like the sound of helmets colliding, pads hitting pads, the bones crunching as football soldiers protect their battleground! It is the difference between Serrano's and bell peppers! Nothing compares, so we put down our forks, and slide from our recliners , heads hung down and eyes to the floor as our honeys hand us our do list! Even whip cream won't add to the dimension!!

       Suddenly, the super bowl is over, and even as the Patriots head to Disney world, you hear the the two sweetest words known to any American sports fan: " Pitchers report!!!!" A few days later and it is Spring training!

We quickly hide our honey do lists, and dig through our closets for our favorite team pennant and baseball gear! Once again, we can retreat to our recliner and tune into ESPN for spring training news and notes! We keep track of player stats, expectations, trades and acquisitions!

     March Madness begins the feast, the cash bar, while we wait patiently for April, and when our television waiters serve our first course! Time to  play ball! And , while baseball is slow paced and does not have the oomph of football, it is an appropriately delicate appetizer , sprinkle it with salt and pepper, and it preps our palates for  August's salad of preseason! A little bleu cheese dressing, a few home runs and stolen bases, and finally, it is September! The main course is served!  FOOTBALL!!!!! 

       I can't wait for April! I am already starving!