The NFL and college football sports season’s kicked off recently, and crock-pots and barbecue grills across the country got fired up the same way football crazy fans did as the long wait for the beginning of their favorite sports ended.

Friends that haven’t seen each other for an entire year, jumped on an airplane to attend their Fantasy Football draft-night celebration. Tens of thousands jumped in their cars to drive an absurd amount of miles to attend these same drafts, and old friendships were rekindled as the sports year officially began.

Face it, sports brings us together and keeps us together.  Even sports like poker played in an online casino can bring people together.  If you are a sports fan, making a Tuesday morning phone call to your best-buddy to talk trash about the previous weekend’s NFL games is an absolute must. Getting together with your in-town buddies for the big game is a guaranteed certainty. Even the traditional Holiday of Thanksgiving wouldn’t be the same without a healthy helping of NFL football following the traditional turkey.

Even the casual sports fan, has some measure of getting together with friends and family because of sports. Every four years the Olympics or the World Cup bring people together on a different level. The global stage of these two events forces the casual fan to stand up and pay attention.

When Usain Bolt took the world by storm with his record-breaking sprinting at the Beijing games, people came together to watch. At the recently completed World Cup from South Africa, sports fans from across the globe gathered together to watch their favorite teams in the biggest sports event in the world.

For those that love sports, the start of their favorite season is like a breath of fresh air. The beginning of the fall sports seasons is a reminder to invite the neighbors over for a late-season barbecue or call your Oakland-Raider-loving buddy to tease him about the futility of being a Raider fan.