Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

Some of you may not know this, but Texas is football country. High-school football here is a Big Thing. What I want to know is why. I honestly have no idea. Please don't say that football is big in other states, such as Ohio and Pennsylvania. This just shows that you don't have a clue. I'm telling you: Football is religion in Texas. On Friday nights, people worship. I grew up in Michigan; I lived for five years in Arizona; and I've been in Texas for 21 years. I know whereof I speak. If I had to guess, I would say that football, unlike, say, baseball and soccer, is rough, and that Texas produces tough kids. (It doesn't surprise me in the least that the only person to win more than five Tours de France is a Texan, or that three of the most competitive pitchers in the history of baseball—Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, and Josh Beckett— are Texans.)