The best holiday in pro football takes place in October every year. It features not the pretty-boy quarterbacks, the red-faced coaches, the suited broadcasters, nor even the best players at any one position. No, this holiday is bigger and broader than those; it’s more inclusive, more far-reaching, more … fun. It highlights an overlooked and evolving position, celebrating those who can catch and who can block, but who now do both in closer-to-equal measure; those who are part lineman and part receiver: hybrids, the versatile, with counterculture vibes.
Of course tight ends deserve their own holiday. That is not even a question. The only tragedy involved here is that they didn’t have one sooner.
Thus, the best holiday in football began Sunday, promptly, with the first kickoff in Week 7 across the NFL. No, hagglers of the thou-protest-too-much variety, the Thursday night matchup, where Jacksonville beat New Orleans, does not count. After all, it’s not National Tight Ends Week.
