Surely you’ve noticed. The sun is sitting lower in the sky.

Here on the Atlantic coast, the ocean has turned a bit. Nothing too dramatic yet, just choppier. Surly maybe.

And Labor Day has passed meaning that summer is kind of symbolically over. The temptation to hunker down for the winter is great.

But don’t. Not yet anyway. Around here, September and October are great months. The air changes. It smells good. The nights cool off and make for great sleeping. The leaves change and, where we live, the marsh changes also. It’s really beautiful.

But when the ocean turns battleship-gray, it’s time to move the coolers and barbecues from the beach to the football stadium.

I don't follow football that closely (I'm strictly a homer) but I do read one football column every week - ”Tuesday Morning Quarterback” by Gregg Easterbrook.

Easterbrook is a contributing editor of The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic and The Washington Monthly, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and a columnist for ESPN.com.

His football column is an unconventional look at the previous week in the NFL. He views the game from atypical perspectives and curious angles which makes for an insightful, surprising and funny read.

Which is good because each column runs about 12-15 pages.

His NFL preview this year continues his tradition of making predictions for each team in haiku.

Front office is the
Bear Stearns of the NFL.
The Cincy Bengals.

He regularly peppers the column with observations on the space program, science, politics and scantily clad cheerleaders. He’s got a kind of “smartest guy in the room” thing about him but all (or most) of his thoughts are very well reasoned and supported by logic.

I like it because it keeps me alive at cocktail parties. If you get caught in a conversation about the NFL, Easterbrook will keep you afloat until you can turn the conversation to that new Brian Eno record…