Merrill Dubrow: My name is Merrill Dubrow, CEO of M/A/R/C research and a 35 plus year veteran of the Insights Community, and host of our podcast On the M/A/R/C. Welcome to another Merrill-ISM segment. Today's segment is, 'Texas football is Friday Night Lights'. A few weeks ago, I had a chance to attend the Allen – Desoto football game. And guess what? It wasn't a Friday night. And if this is my hometown of Framingham, Mass - shout out - perhaps it would be an old, ugly stadium that has about 500 or 1000 seats. Not here. Not in Texas. The stadium I walked into on that Friday night, and by the way, I was a guest and a shout out to my buddy Brian Carter, for the invite hosting three of us in a suite on the field and to a really nice air conditioning buffet dinner while was 105 outside. Back to the game, which was in Allen, Texas. Allen Texas Stadium is a $60 million high school stadium that seats over 18,000 people and is nicer without question than many D2 or D3 college stadiums. So as we pulled up to the stadium, tons of people had braved the heat, 110, for hours. And they were tailgating because this was the Tom Landry classic between two amazing teams. Texas football is 100% Friday night lights. It seems that everything is bigger in Texas. The players are bigger, the stadiums are bigger, the fans appear to be louder than anywhere else. They're hitting seems to be hotter on these fields. The quarterbacks seem to be able to throw it farther and more accurate on these fields. The running backs and wide receivers seem to be much faster than anywhere else. And every single town in the great state of Texas seems to shut down every Friday from the end of August to November for high school football. Some of you may say, "It's not that big. It's not that good." To them, I say this, "There are currently nine out of the top 48 teams in the United States that are ranked in the top 48 are in Texas." California, another football powerhouse state has eight out of the top 48. And Florida is next with only six. It seems like time stands still on Friday in Texas. It is truly impressive. I do know a lot of games in my life and trust me when I say Texas high school football is not only special, but something that every single sports band needs to experience. My name is Merrill Dubrow thanks for listening to today's podcast, Texas football is Friday Night Late. How big is football in your town or city? Which the big sport where you live? I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Stay well, stay safe, and please, please stay in touch.