Thank God for fall Sundays.

My team, the Tennessee Titans, are now 4-0, their best start ever (even when they were called the Oilers and located in Houston). Only the Buffalo Bills have as good a record. The Titans grind out wins — their longest run on Sunday was just nine yards, and their quarterback is Kerry Collins, a graying veteran taking the place of an emotionally unstable Vince Young.

It seems like every day, for me, consists of a bunch of reading about politics. It’s interesting, but on Sunday I realize that it’s overkill. Instead, I can relax and watch a totally unneccesary game, played at the highest level, and let a lot of my other worries fall by the wayside.

Don’t get me wrong… there are far too many men whose lives this time of year are singularly focused on football. They watch games all day, checking their fantasy football leagues during commercial breaks; during the week, they watch SportsCenter and read FanNation.com and do more of the fantasy league stuff. I’m not one of those guys, and don’t intend to become one. It’s often said that Americans are too distracted, and I’m inclined to agree. How many people I know, who have some supposedly solid opinion on our parties or the candidates or the economic plan or the courts — people who, ultimately, know very little if anything about the real issues or the real motivations of “conservatives” or “liberals.”

But Sunday’s hours of distraction, for me, are a blessing right now. I can play with Lewis and Owen and still keep an eye on the game; I can talk to Shelley about all kinds of things during a day mostly spent at home, and we can both enjoy the long bomb into double coverage, the defensive breakdown that allows a 5-yard run to turn into a 50-yarder, the QB sack that comes with such ferocity that we can FEEL the hit, cringing when it happens.

It’s fun! It’s football, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of.

Now back to the real world. Until later tonight, of course, for the Monday Night Football game that really caps the weekend.