What draws you to football/football history?

[AFLfan]

Originally Posted by jefferyepayne

While your AFL auto sets are completely awesome, I'm still in awe that you figured out how to write a Master's Thesis on football, Todd! That is incredible. I wish I was that smart ... my thesis was on a bunch of technical gobblygook and would have rather written about Thorpe or something LOL.

jeff

Haha. Next time we're together, remind me to tell you about how I got into grad school in the first place. I was actually recruited in to write about baseball. Then when that didn't work out, I got the Chargers gig.

It has been an interesting way to make a living. Sometimes flush, other times not. But it has put me in some interesting situations, and given me the opportunity to do some neat things, and certainly expand my collection in ways that are not available to most people.

At the same time, I think that being so close to a lot of it has been a major contributing factor in my total disdain for contemporary professional sports. My love for professional athletes is all memory and research-based. I don't really watch any live sports beyond my kids and their friends playing lacrosse, or football, basketball, etc., for their youth leagues or high schools. Though I do get a great deal of joy out of that.