I can’t stop thinking about that Raiders game. I watched it with my dog. I yelled at her a lot, not in a mean or threatening way, but I admit there were plenty of times — when Marshawn Lynch went bat-out-of-hell loony, when Amari Cooper emerged from the shadows, got pummeled and kept jumping right back up — when I turned to Bella, this little itty bitty fluff ball, and screamed, “Did you see that?!”
Football still causes the heart to race. It’s nice to be reminded, because lately the sport has felt as if it's lugging around a freight train of baggage and soot.