Blitzstory Lesson

St. Louis is such a diehard baseball bastion, sometimes we natives have to remind ourselves of a basic reality: Football is the number one sport in North America. Some may rue that truth and some may cheer it; where you stand on that point says a lot about what you look for in a sporting contest. But in contrast to the endless spring, summer and fall of a long baseball season, football offers a compact handful of games, lending each one maximum import and excitement. Its surface violence aside, it’s a beautiful game of finely detailed strategy and high drama. The great American rite of autumn also has a fascinating history that’s detailed in a new exhibit called Gridiron Glory: the Best of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. This traveling show compiles more than 200 football artifacts, rare photos and irreplaceable documents culled from the Pro Football Hall of Fame collections. Football fans need to find a hole in the defensive line of our busy daily lives and sprint to this exhibit, which opens Saturday, May 25, at the Missouri History Museum (Lindell Boulevard and DeBaliviere Avenue; 314-746-4599 or www.mohistory.org). Gridiron Glory remains on display through Tuesday, September 3. Admission is $4 to $12.
May 25-Sept. 3, 2013