We're very much looking forward to having al.com host our college football rankings and predictions this year. In case you don't know, al.com is the online home of The Huntsville Times, The Birmingham News, and the Mobile Press-Register). We would like to say thank you to the IT and news folks there for making the process of getting integrated into their web site an easy one.
So, why are we excited? Well, we certainly look forward to increasing our visibility to college football fans. That, of course, has its ups and downs. Over the years, we have received a lot of very positive feedback from folks all over the country. Once in a while though, college football fans being a "passionate" lot, we do get the occasional nastygram.
I make it a standing principle to try to reply to all of our email and to do so respectfully. This is not always easy, particularly when you just can't see eye-to-eye with someone, but I have found that if I try to respond kindly, make an effort to see the other person's perspective, and don't get sucked into name-calling, I have (so far) been able to smooth things over and conclude every exchange on a positive note -- agreeing politely to disagree, resolving misunderstandings, making reasonable concessions.
While it is "just" football (that phrase might earn me an email all by itself), it is also a microcosm of life. And strangely, folks who might not be very transparent in life are rarely so opaque when they're talking football. You can be pretty sure they're telling you exactly what they think and feel. So, while we may regard conversation on "news, sports, and the weather" as light fair, perhaps sports (or at least football) doesn't belong in that category. Sometimes it's the only time someone will give you a glimpse of who they really are.
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