It’s the time of year when football gets serious. The college teams are playing in various bowl games. LSU and Alabama are going to be playing for the national championship. And the professional teams are kicking off their playoff season this weekend. Therefore, there’s lot of football stories in the news right now. I’m going to comment on a few that have caught my interest.

First, Landon Collins, a five-star defensive back from Louisiana, is being recruited by both the aforementioned LSU and Alabama. While in Florida for the Under Armour All-American game, Collins announced his choice – Alabama. Collins’s mother disagreed with the announcement, saying she thought LSU was the proper place for her son. There are several issues here. The first is that Collins should have made sure his mother knew his choice before announcing it on national TV. Some of his fellow All-American players are of the opinion that his mother should have no voice in where he goes to school, and I don’t particularly agree with that. Regardless of scholarship money received, parents are still out some money on college educations, and choosing a college should involve the parents. However, that said, ultimately it is the child’s choice where he or she goes to college and that includes dealing with any repercussions of that choice. In this situation, though, since Collins is such a high-profile recruit, the young man should not have blindsided his mother with the announcement. This discussion should have taken place in their family before an official announcement was made. The second issue, though, is with the mother. Of the two, she is supposed to be the responsible adult. Her reaction was completely uncalled for. Even if she was blindsided, even if she thinks LSU is the better choice, and even if she thinks the decision has not really been made (Collins isn’t bound by this announcement; nothing is official until National Signing Day on Feb. 1), she should have held herself together and not reacted in such a negative manner. There was absolutely no reason to embarrass her son. It’s likely Collins and his mother will have further discussions related to the matter, but those should take place in the privacy of their home, not in front of a national audience.

Another story that caught my eye is that of Isaac Redman, a Pittsburgh Steelers running back. Redman was arrested during his senior year of high school in 2003, and as a result, almost lost his football career. Redman credits his mother for his success because she literally sacrificed everything to help defend him. Her belief and faith in him inspired him to push himself to do better when he was finally able to attend Bowie State and when he finally found his way into the NFL. It’s obvious he took a more difficult route than some other athletes. However, what seems inspiring about his story is that one mistake doesn’t have to define your entire life. It appears Redman has used his mistake as motivation to turn his life around. Everybody makes mistakes; it’s what we do afterwards that determines what we’re made of. We can either continue to make mistakes, or we can learn from our mistakes and become better people because of them. Kudos to Redman for choosing the second option.

Finally, I’ve gone all season and not blogged about Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow. I will comment briefly here, and who knows, before the season is over, I may be compelled to write a blog devoted just to him. For now, though, I just want to point out that Tebow is not the first player to take a knee after a touchdown. I’ll also point out he won’t be the last. From what I can tell, Tebow is a class act. For the moment, there are definitely worse role models that your kid could choose. I’m wondering how many of Tebow’s attackers want him to fail simply because they can’t stand to see someone who has a clean image being so successful. I’ve read a lot of different stories about Tebow, and I’ve read a lot of user comments that go along with those stories, and it seems that a majority of reporters are out to get Tebow and a majority of readers are defending Tebow. At least that part is refreshing; there does seem to be a great number of folks willing to defend Tebow. A bit of irony works its way through the Tebow stories as well. The media wants to ridicule him, yet I’d say they’re providing him with some new fans instead. Even so, though, how about we all just cut the guy a break and let him play football?

I’m no stranger to football and as the NFL playoffs begin this weekend and with the college national championship game still to be played, I’ve no doubt the next month will be filled with a variety of headlines. I just hope there are more positive than negative ones.