Week six of my football column, Down and Distance, is up at Troubl.org, and it goes something like this:

I spent Saturday at the Three Points Ranch, just outside of Marble Falls, TX, for a wedding ceremony. Evan, a college friend of my wife’s, was getting married to his boyfriend, Addison. They’re both Manhattanites, upwardly-mobile members of a social class I rarely spend time with. The ceremony was conducted in Texas, as that’s where both of their families hail from, but the actual wedding papers, by law, were to be filed in Massachusetts–except the day before the wedding, Connecticut ruled that gay folks could get married in their state, saving them a trip further north.

It made for some interesting table-talk at the reception, let me tell you. My wife and I sat with six well-dressed, well-coifed men, all couples, as well as an elderly uncle, a widower who wore his cowboy hat, boots, and belt buckle emblazoned with the words right to bear arms without a trace of irony.

So, where are you from? I asked the dude sitting next to me.

Memphis, he said. Originally, Memphis. I live in New York now.

Ooh, Tennessee? a young fella across the table said. Have you been to Dollywood?

The rest of the table looked at him with stark interest, and he nodded profusely. Only four times! He laughed.

Oh, god, I want to go so bad, the man seated next to my wife said, his voice thick with an Australian accent. I just love her.

I kicked my wife under the table, delighted to have a stereotype as innocuous as a group of gay men’s devotion to Dolly Parton validated, when the old cowboy spoke. That woman is a national treasure, he said with a thick West Texas drawl, something like Couch Taylor on Friday Night Lights mixed with a hint of Sam Elliott.

I turned to the guy who started this, the one from Tennessee, aware that the novelty of this conversation would quickly wear off. Enough about Dolly Parton, I implored, what do you think of the Titans this year?

(read the rest here)

When the column first went live this morning, that picture up there was attached to it, but it was quickly replaced with one a bit more tasteful- unless you’re a Cowboys fan. This week’s column is about gay marriage, the Tennessee Titans, and how awful week six was for everybody (except for my wife’s friend, who got married).