"Wedding Crashers" was wrong. A question posed early in the movie implies the two best seasons of the year: "What do you like better: Christmas or Wedding season?" Please, don't call on Vince Vaughn. It's a trick question Vince!

Christmas. Here's all the reasons that people might say Christmas is the best time of year:

"Christmas is a time of happiness and joy." But, so is football season. What could possibly bring me more joy than seeing my Patriots win each Sunday? Ok, seeing the Raiders lose, which indeed does happen almost every Sunday, but besides that, not a whole lot.

"Christmas is a time to spend with loved ones." Yes, when you sit down at Christmas dinner and your father-in-law is sitting there across from you, staring you down, knowing how much "joy" you're going to have with his little girl that night because it's Christmas. Yes, and you'd expect I'd take that dinner over a tailgate with the boys!?!

"Christmas has lots of songs to sing: 'It's the most wonderful time of the year!'" You really think I enjoy putting on my boats and my mittens to tramp around in the frozen cold singing songs to people who think the only thing more annoying than my singing is the fact that they will have those jingles stuck in their head when they're trying to sleep. I don't mind getting a jingle stuck in my head, but only if it's that Monday Night Football jingle that everyone's humming in ESPN's latest ad. Silly ESPN, as if they needed to convince me that I should watch one more night of football; Monday Night Football is the greatest invention since the baker's dozen.

"Christmas is a time to relax." Umm... Lazyboy. Beer. Need is say more?

"Christmas is a time to give and receive gifts." Great, that's exactly what I want to do. Run around to every mall this side of the Texas-Oklahoma game trying to decide if the perfect gift is the diamond-necklace or the pearl earrings. As far as I'm concerned, I'm happy when my biggest shopping decision is Bud or Coors. When it comes to receiving gifts, the Patriots are scheduled to play Chad Pennington and JP Losman twice each , so I'm sure I'll receive plenty of "gifts."

When it comes down to it, Christmas isn't a bad season at all. It's like a big show that you need to take part in. Football season is like that too, only you don't actually have to worry about taking part in the show, you just need to watch it.

Wedding season is a show too, only wedding season and football season are essentially opposites.

Wedding season is a time to celebrate the love between a man and a woman. Football season isn't.

Football season is a time for a man to be himself and defy the iron fist that has ruled him from Adam Vinatieri's Super Bowl winning field goal to the Hall of Fame Game, six months of tyrannic rule. All the times he had to mow the lawn, take the kids to soccer, or do the shopping because "the Brewers are playing the Rockies" wasn't a valid excuse. Finally, "sorry, the Titans are playing the Jets" will work again!

There are many love-based benefits associated with wedding season, but these benefits exist as well during football season. Once that final, Monday Night Football game has ended, the relief of no longer having to listen to Joe Theismann will soon be replaced by the guilt that you have forgotten about your significant other since two unranked college teams kicked off on Thursday evening. At which point, you'll need to make up for your neglecting her as if it were wedding season.

Football season negates everything that wedding season attempts to create. Weddings try to sell you on commitment and devotion, but what about your commitment and devotion to your team and to your armchair, those certainly can't be forgotten? But they are, when they're pushed aside for a long summer of visiting people that, apparently, you're related to.

Don't worry! Football season is here again. The college season started last Thursday with some exciting games, such as Buffalo's 9-3 overtime win over powerhouse Temple (ranked 119 of 119 in Div 1-A by Sports Illustrated) or Ball State's 38-20 romp over Eastern Michigan.

The professional season begins this Thursday when Miami visits Pittsburgh. This year, the start of the NFL comes at a perfect time for most areas of the country.

Areas such as Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Tampa Bay and Wisconsin have been waiting all summer, ever since their baseball teams (the Pirates, Royals, Devil Rays, and Brewers) were eliminated from the playoffs...somewhere around Memorial Day. The Steelers hope to defend their Super Bowl championship; the Chiefs hope to make a playoff run on the back of Larry Johnson; the Bucs, hope to bring fans back to the glory day (singular) of 2002; and Brett Favre and the Packers will always have the support of their fans, even if they don’t have a lot of support in the win column.

Many other cities are relieved to see their teams kickoff this weekend so they can finally forget about lost baseball dreams. Boston hopes the New England Patriots can help them forget about the monumental collapse of the Red Sox. In Seattle, the Mariners also dropped off the map, and their Seahawks could easily end up playing the Patriots for Super Bowl XLI. Atlanta, whose Braves will be excluded from the playoffs for the first time in 15 years, will finally get the chance to see Michael Vick throw the football and come to the horrifying realization that he doesn't actually throw the football. And, Cubs fans hope the Bears will bring pride back to the Chicago den.

As it works out, most of the baseball teams headed to the playoffs will serve as a decoy to their fans so won't have to pay attention to the gridiron. In New York, the Mets and the Yankees hope that New Yorkers dreaming of a Subway Series will wart off the nightmare known as the New York Jets. The roar of the Tigers will compensate for Detroit's mute Lions. In Oakland, the Athletics appearance in the American League Divisional Series will temporarily distract from the Raiders fourth consecutive season with a double-digit loss total. Unfortunately, as Moneyball, by Michael Lewis, points out, the Athletics are only designed to make the playoffs, not win them, so, to the joy of the rest of America, Raiders fans will be able to suffer through another long season.

Some cities, however, do not have both baseball and football teams, and it works out. Indianapolis, Jacksonville, and Dallas enter the football season with high hopes, while Los Angeles plans on watching its Dodgers compete in October. There's no guarantee who will be limping around the bases after a walk off homer for the boys in blue, but my money is on chronically injured Nomar Garciaparra.

One of the only areas without any hope is Buffalo. Then again, if you lost four straight Super Bowls, would you really want to give your fans hope?

Even in Buffalo, however, they have to be looking forward to football season. Football is that one sport that men, and some daring women, can sit down together and watch, no matter who's playing. I'm sure I'm not the only guy who intently, and contently, watched a barn-burner between Memphis and Mississippi on Sunday afternoon. Football is better than wedding season because we have no obligations. It's better than Christmas season because it requires no actions. Football season, Vince Vaughn, is the answer to your question. Football season is the best time of year. And football season is here!

Sources: "Wedding Crashers", nfl.com, sports.yahoo.com, Sports Illustrated (8/21/2006).

NOTE: This blog was written as an assignment for the Journalism 499: Sports Commentary class at the University of Southern California, taught by Joshua Adande.