Years ago, when my hair was way more plentiful and had a much different and more attractive color to it, kids who focused on sports were thought by many adults, including educators, to be wasting their time.

“You need to do something more practical and useful with your life,” we sports children were told by people whose hair greatly resembles mine now.

What us kids didn’t really understand — and none of the adults did, either — was that we — or, at least, some of us anyway — were beginning to carve out a profession. Heck, I could name all of the starters on offense and defense, and their jersey numbers, on those mud-1960s Browns teams. The adults — other than my parents, who were fully supportive because they knew how much I liked it — thought I was just weird.

I say all because I made the silly mistake of starting to read a bunch of political articles that popped up on my phone the other day. Those people are all knuckleheads, so I certainly made the right choice by staying in sports, where, even if it doesn’t make sense all the time, it makes a lot more sense than the political people any of the time.

I would much rather concentrate on the Browns and their game on Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars than anything I read in those articles.

I wonder what all those long-ago adults would say now.

And one more thing, thank you so much Mom and Dad for letting me be me.

Steve King