Good Morning, NFL

Though tomorrow is my first day of graduate school classes and I've been assigned more work than I anticipated (assigned reading and homework before the first classes of the program?), I'm going to do my best to try and update Caught Looking at least once or twice a week while in school.  Living in the Bay Area should give me tons of new and (somewhat) interesting sports-related topics to write about.  With today being the first real day of the NFL season (the Thursday night season opening game doesn't really count, after all . . .), there's no better time to write about my return to morning NFL football.

When I first moved to Los Angeles in 2005, I quickly discovered the beauty of the Pacific time zone when it comes to following the NFL, and following East Coast teams (like my New York Giants) in particular.  At first pass, most East Coast sports fans are against the idea of watching the early games starting at 10 AM local time; they complain that that's too early to watch games, that it's awkward to go to a sports bar that early in the morning, and that the Sunday night game is actually more of a Sunday "late afternoon" game, since it starts at 5 PM here on the West Coast.

Trust me on this: following football is better when you're three hours behind.  The key considerations:

• 10 AM is a great start time for games.  It gives you the ability to go out on a Saturday night, sleep to a respectable (but not too early or too late) time - let's say 9:30 AM - on Sunday morning, roll out of bed and immediately start watching NFL games.  What better way to start a Sunday?
• I've never been a big fan of football at sports bars - too noisy, too many distractions, too much emphasis on beer and food and not enough on football.  I especially dislike going to the bars when the Giants are playing - all I want to do is focus on Big Blue, and can do without hearing what the fat guy behind me (wearing the Jake Delhomme jersey, most likely) thinks about the Browns chances this year.  Having the East Coast games start at 10 AM makes it a bit less likely that people will want to mobilize to a bar for the early games, and lets you focus on the action with your fellow true fans at home.
• The late games end at 4 PM here, so the NFL doesn't kill your entire day.  Even if you watch through the Sunday night game, you're done by 9 PM and still have a few quality hours left in your Sunday night to do work, laundry (which I'm doing as I type), or whatever.  Anyone who responds to this with a "Yeah, but on the East Coast you can get stuff done before the start of the early games" is delusional; no one I know is even mildly productive before noon on a Sunday.

I almost forgot how great Pacific Standard Time football was until this weekend, when I took advantage of it for both NCAA (some games start at 9 AM!) and NFL games.  Throughout this season and next, I'll continue to embrace all of the 10 AM Giants games.  I encourage you all to come out to the Bay Area for a weekend during the NFL season; I'll be sure to show you how much fun being a West Coast football fan can be.