I’m so freakin’ excited, I’m about to pee my pants.

This is easily the best time of the whole year to be a sports fan. If you can’t get behind some football right now, then I feel sorry for you. Not because of what you are missing, but because for the next four months, football is just about all anyone in the sports world is going to be talking about.

College and pro football are about to kick off and I am practically drooling at the chance to root for my Pittsburgh Steelers and my adopted South Carolina Gamecocks.

This year, I am on a crusade, encouraging football fans to not sit idly by and let another season get by them. The fact is, while South Carolina does not have an NFL team, we are in a centralized hub of football frenzy that you would have to be a fool to miss out on.

First and foremost around here are the college ranks of Clemson University and the University of South Carolina. This intense rivalry is as big as any I ever experienced watching Ohio State and Michigan do battle every year and I, for one, love it.

Then, we are just two hours away from a couple of NFL teams that might not be the cream of the crop, but have an awful lot going for them in the way of excitement. Not to mention they are going to be playing teams that are pretty darn good this year.

Think about it. Where else could you take a Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday off and go to four different football games in the span of five days. Thursday is Clemson, followed up by a trip to Columbia for a South Carolina square-off, then to Atlanta for a Sunday 1 p.m. Falcons game, and culminating in the Carolina Panthers on a Monday night. Honestly, I don’t know if the schedule works out that way, but it’s bloody possible and that makes for any football fan’s dream.

I know few of us are fans of that many teams and costs get up there pretty high to do all that. But you could. You could get tickets 30 minutes before each game for about face value, run into the game after tailgating and have enough time to get home, shower and do it all again the next day.

Personally, I am finally getting to Pittsburgh this year for a game at Heinz Field. I don’t know when and I don’t know who is going, but I will be cheering from some nosebleed seat for my Steelers as they pound the crud out of whoever dares to take the field with them.

Not to mention, I’ve got fantasy football leagues popping up all over the place and I have to get my draft on in the next couple weekends.

Dudes, this is the greatest sports time of the year. All you have to do is take it all in.