I watched with excitement Sunday as my beloved Redskins and its recharged defense took control of the New York Giants.

That's not the point of this column, that's just to rub it in to Giants fans who might be reading.

The point of this column is football is back and I, personally, believe it is important that it is back.

We may complain that player salaries are too high, but, if you stop and think, it is us, the fans, who have made them high, because we care, because we watch, because we buy the merchandise. We do so because we believe football is important.

Football is important because in my opinion and millions of others, it has become national past time, has far exceeded baseball in capturing that title. Why would networks take a loss to air it if it wasn't important?

I have always said sports magnify life, its ups and downs, its wins and losses, its disappointments and its joys.

While all sports do this, I think football does it more when you look at how even Michael Vick — no I am still not over it and will never be — can go on the field after serving a federal sentence and achieve. You can see it in Redskins safety Reed Doughty, who is severely hearing impaired, but took over the position following Sean Taylor's murder.

Those are just a few of the examples. There are more. On the field we see people, many of whom have struggled and sacrificed to make it. Most are appreciative and humbled, some carry it to the extreme and squander it. This is how it magnifies life.

If anything, however, that the big opening day fell on the tenth anniversary of 9-11, showed us how much we need football, how we needed it 10 years ago and how we need it now.

You saw it 10 years ago when the game resumed and there was that energy in the air, that said, things will get back to normal because there is football. You saw it Sunday and there was that energy in the air, that said, we have survived.

You saw it in the players, many having special shoes and gear made for the occasion, many with tears in their eyes as the national anthem was played, the coaches wearing caps honoring the fallen first responders on that tragic day.

Football may be the most American of all sports. Some would argue it's baseball, if you buy the myth that was so solidly debunked by Ken Burns in his Baseball documentary, that Abner Doubleday laid out the first diamond in Cooperstown. Baseball, like football, evolved from other games the Europeans brought over here. Football, unlike baseball, evolved into something of its own and we see more of the working class spirit in this gritty game than we do in baseball.

I think that's the biggest reason football is important, that it is a reflection of the working class that built this country and the working class heroes who risked their lives to save others on 9-11 and every other day.

Welcome back football.