Can you smell the football?

The days are getting noticeably cooler and there is a crispness seeping into the air. It's football season.

Teams have finished their grueling two-a-days in preparation for the first games of the season. Quarterbacks, receivers and backfields have been dissected for strengths and weaknesses. Pads and cleats that were new two weeks ago have been broken in and are ready for Friday night.

For those of us who are football fans but were never football players it is a different season.

As a girl who loves football and attended Washington State University at a time when the football team was doing quite well, I learned that late summer and fall have a distinct smell and feel that is unique to football season.

There is something sharper in the air, a crisp smell that is missing throughout the rest of the year. It is the bite that makes you put another blanket on your bed instead of closing your window at night. It is the smell of warm apple cider and pumpkin pie.

If you grew up around orchardists, they would say it was time to pick apples. My dad and uncles spent their football seasons climbing up ladders and filling bin after bin with apples. As a result my football education came from friends and family members who had avoided such duties.

The beginning of football season is the time of year when the mornings are cold and the afternoons are too warm for your morning sweater. In Pullman it was a Saturday morning walking to Martin Stadium in two sweatshirts and walking from Martin Stadium in a tee-shirt with a sunburn.

Having left my alma mater just one year ago, the memories of those games, smells and sensations are still fresh. Those college football games were, in some ways, the games that were the most memorable because their impact felt completely personal; an experience shared with 30,000 of your nearest and dearest. That was football in the Palouse.

For my family and friends the direction the collegiate season gave me has given way to my obsessive watching at home — in front of the television with a bowl of cereal and my favorite sweatshirt. I tune in each Saturday for game day, watching Top 25 teams and lesser known teams with an equal fervor. I keep meticulous mental track of stats and win-loss records throughout the season and make my picks based upon loyalty and early season scouting.

I am happy to say the season has arrived yet again. Local high school teams will be beginning their march toward post-season glory. College teams will be looking to go to the Bowl Championship Series and invitationals. And professional teams will be looking to go to the granddaddy of them all, the Super Bowl.

For the fans who recognize the smell of football in the air, I urge you to glory in it. Revel in the knowledge of a new season on the verge of beginning. For the non-football watchers among us, I urge you toward patience with your football-watching friends and family and beseech you to give a great game a chance.

Pam Robel is the news assistant for the Columbia Basin Herald.