At Least We have Football

Football is the sport that most of America looks forward to. In a time of niche marketing and narrowcasting, football has become the real national pastime. It is certainly a good time to be a football fan in West Virginia:

• The WVU football team: Top Ten, and a legitimate proto-superstar in Steve Slaton.


• Marshall, while having an appointment with destruction in their opener with WVU, does have a major movie coming out in "We Are Marshall", based on the 1970 Marshall Football Team plane crash. If the admissions office has any brains, they will send a free ticket to every high school senior on their recruiting lists.


• The All-American Football League, which will feature graduates of major university programs playing together in their old stadiums, is considering a Morgantown team (go here to vote for WVU)


• And the Bluefield Barons, a second year team in the very semi-pro Alliance Football League, (AFL) coming off an undefeated, league championship rookie season, have started to play again. (currently 2-0)

The AFL was overwhelmed by Bluefield its first year. But then again Buefield is a football town with multiple state championships and a large local following. The Barons have a number of former players from WVU, Marshall, East Tennessee, as well as a large contingent from the local Division II team at Concord University who were living and working in the area before the formation of the team. Their success says a lot about the people who built the organization.

It also says a lot about the leadership of the Bluefield, WV community. It is a shame that in just one year year the people of Bluefield can build a football team to dominate (actually humiliate) an entire football league, but for nearly 40 years haven't been able to revive an economy since the end of labor-intensive coal mining. Many missed oppoutunities inculde barring mall and shopping center developments from the city limits as threats to the good old boy power structure and watching them set up just outside of town, operating as permanent tax base destroyers.

At least we have good football teams.

BTW, here's a music video of a song about the 1970 plane crash:



Now, to cleanse the palette for we WVU fans...