America's pastime and HDTV

So last night was the opening game of what most folks refer to now as America's pastime. What I'm talking about is pro football.

Now I'm not the biggest fan of football, but I'm getting to the point where I enjoy it more. I guess that has a lot to do with covering local football and sometimes broadcasting the games like I am tonight. So I getting to the point where I can see things happening and pick out holds and penalties, etc.

However, I've always contended that you can't call the NFL the most popular sport because of the game itself. I'll admit that it's a fun game to watch, but the reason it's so popular is because it only happens on Sunday's with one game on Monday for the most part. Personally, I think basketball is a much better game and I'll contend that if you made basketball a virtual one night a week game you would have the country's best sport. Especially if you are talking college basketball.

The NCAA tournament is like second Christmas for most of my friends and I, but since the closest thing to a pro sport in Kentucky is UK basketball, I'm probably biased toward college basketball.

However, if you don't think basketball is the most popular sport, think about what most every NFL receiver does when catches the ball in the endzone for a touchdown.

He slam dunks the ball over the goal post.

But I digress... The other thing I would like to talk about is HDTV. Piccu and I just purchased a cutting edge 62 inch widescreen TV last week and last night was just about the first time we really got to see HD in action. Technically the saleman told us we wouldn't be able to pick up the signal on our TV antenna, but either he gave us a more expensive TV or he wasn't quite up on the equipment.

Either way, we picked up the Patriots/Raiders game last night in HD and it was unbelievable. You could see the metal flake in the paint on the teams' silver helmets. Every imperfection on the field where the turf was disturbed. It was unreal.

After the game went off we also caught the beginning of Conan O'Brien and I've always thought of Conan as a young guy. Especially since he was following Jay Leno who has seemed to be around for forever. But seeing him in HD really showed his age. He looked a little rough.

Anyway, when you buy your next TV make sure it's HD ready because you won't be disappointed.