I'm the type of person who always lies awake in bed at night and thinks about a lot of crap before I can go to sleep. Last night I was thinking about a lot of things including that I should write more.

I actually decided to write more a few weeks ago after I got viciously attacked by dogs. It was severe. Two Akita/heeler mixes chased after me, unprovoked, got me to the ground and started eating my legs. The dog on the right leg had a pretty blue scarf around his neck as he ripped flesh off of my shin. Down to the bone. The other dog, on my left leg, was slowly working his way up my leg, and he had just about eschewed my leg for more vital organs in my intestinal region when a good Samaritan jumped out of his car, barreled toward me, kicked the dogs off of me, and called 911. If he hadn't shown up, I believe I would be dead. And near death experiences have a way of making one ruminate about his life. I made 4 "resolutions"

1. Stop biting fingernails and the skin around my fingernails. Dogs chew on David. David doesn't chew on David.
2. Compliment and thank Rebekah (my wife) every day. Notice the little things. She is amazing and I need to do a better job of reminding her of this and helping her.
3. Play with the boys more. Go outside and run and roll around (when I'm healthy enough to do it). It's easy to say no to them and sit an read. But it's harder to be forced to sit like I have been recently. When I'm better, unless I'm going something actually important, don't say "no" to playing.
4. Write more.

Well, this blog is an attempt to write more. But I wanted a hook to the blog. So I have decided on Last Night This Morning. I'm going to write every morning about the things I was thinking about the previous night before I fell asleep. Not only will this help me write, it will help me be more introspective and codify my thoughts on some issues that get me thinking.

For example, last night I was thinking about whether or not I should watch football anymore. I am a parent to two small boys, 6 and 3, and they already know they're not allowed to play football. The research about football's dangers is pretty conclusive, to say the least. And as a professor, I find my kids' brains incredibly important, so I've banned my children from playing football (hurray unilateral decisions!).

The problem with this decision is that I actually like watching football quite a bit. And last night I was watching the 49ers play the Bears. My three year old giggled at the 49ers uniforms saying, "Why are their pants gold? They have goldie pants. They should have red, like their shirts!" Both of my kids have interesting (sometimes funny) observations about football games, making me think about things I've never noticed. And I enjoy spending time with them. But I also sense the hypocrisy of watching a sport with them that they aren't allowed to play.

I've tried to stop caring about college football because a brain damaging sport at an institution of higher learning seems a bit oxymoronic. But I still root for TCU (where I got my PhD) and Morningside (where I teach) because people I know and I have emotional investments in the teams. I have tried to stop caring about the NFL because I've never cared about a specific team very much and recently the controversy surrounding Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson and the NFL's handling of such issues, not to mention the terrible way the NFL handled concussion issues for years, has me thinking that I shouldn't support the NFL. But I have two fantasy football teams with two different groups of friends. I like bonding with my friends.

The actions of the NFL and the NCAA should make my decision easy. They are both morally corrupt institutions, and they both support a game that actively destroys its participants' brains. And yet, instead of ceasing and desisting putting my eyeballs on the TV set, I'm stuck lying awake at night thinking about it after watching football on Saturday and Sunday.