Georgia football is the No. 1 topic every day on DawgNation Daily — the daily podcast for Georgia Bulldogs fans. Catch up on everything happening with UGA athletics with host Brandon Adams and the DawgNation experts as they break down the latest Georgia football recruiting news and discuss coach Kirby Smart’s quest to return the Bulldogs to the top of the SEC. On episode No. 1,343 (Dec. 28, 2020) of the podcast, Georgia fans can hear a discussion about Georgia’s preparations for its Peach Bowl showdown against Cincinnati.

Georgia football podcast: Old narratives don’t fit for UGA in Peach Bowl

Thank you for your patience while I’ve been away from work. Some of you know, but many of you might not, my father recently passed away. I’ve been taking some time to be with my family.

However, I view DawgNation as my “other” family, and with that in mind, I’m grateful to be able to return to the show today.

On today’s show, I discuss why Georgia vs. Cincinnati won’t fit into the typical narrative that might’ve been seen in the past when an SEC team has played a Group of Five opponent. And former UGA All-American Jon Stinchomb joins the show to address some of the Bulldogs’ recent opt outs.

I also close today’s show with a mention of outside linebacker Jermaine Johnson’s transfer, a preview of UGA quarterback signee Brock Vandagriff’s state championship game and an announcement about Eddie The Blind Squirrel’s eventual return.

I hope you enjoy the show, and I really appreciate you listening.

I also would like to share a few words on the passing of my father.

Charles Adams, 1947-2020

I love Christmas, and my father did too. It’s impossible to think about him this time of year without remembering moments from Christmases past.

I remember being a teenager and shopping with my parents and asking my mother for a shirt for Christmas that cost $89. My father overheard and made it clear how preposterous it was to want a shirt that cost so much.

I thought an expensive shirt was a good way to get noticed, which was important to me at the time. Looking back, what’s more important to me now is how content my father was to not be noticed. He was more than happy to operate quietly in the background with dignity, purpose and little fanfare.

That was apparently true of him even before I was born. My father was a Vietnam veteran. I’ve always known this, but until recently I haven’t done enough to consider what that must’ve been like for him, and how that possibly shaped his character.

I’ve read a lot lately about the divided nature of our country during that era and the intense feelings the war generated. I’ve watched speeches online — including President Lyndon Johnson’s announcement in March of 1968 that he wouldn’t seek reelection. Johnson acknowledged the division among Americans about the war in his remarks and also laid out his wish for an “honorable peace” for America.

That peace was hard to come by.

My father was deployed in 1970 — nearly two years after Johnson’s declaration. More than 8,500 Americans would die in combat while my father served.

It’s difficult to imagine the feelings this must’ve conjured for him — to be in such proximity to danger with so many saying the cause wasn’t worth the struggle.

If my father felt the war was wrong, he never said it, at least not to me. He simply did what was required of him at the time.

He was a man who understood his duties and obligations and was too humble to question them.

He worked for more than 30 years at the post office. I’m somewhat ashamed to say I don’t know much about my father’s work — either his title or his daily responsibilities. But I never once doubted whether he’d provide for our family.

He’s like a great line from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol — when the ghost of Jacob Marley describes his life’s work to Ebenezer Scrooge.

“The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business,” Marley says.

That was definitely true of my father. His “business” was much more than his work.

He was a person of faith and taught me to be as well.

He would read the story of Joseph, Mary and the Baby Jesus to us each Christmas Eve before any presents could be opened.

That was an agonizing wait for a child, but a priceless memory for me now as an adult.

I see a resemblance to my father in that Christmas story. Joseph, I’ve come to understand, was also content to live a dutiful life away from the spotlight.

There’s actually very little about Joseph in The Bible. In fact, one of the gospels doesn’t mention him at all.

However, I love what Kevin Williamson recently wrote about Joseph’s place in the Christmas story.

“Joseph may recede into the background,” Williamson wrote. “But his actual absence would be felt painfully — would, in fact, be catastrophic. The whole picture falls apart without him, teetering out of balance and tottering into chaos. The good father is there even when he is not there, present even if unseen, ready to give everything and, if necessary, receive nothing.”

That description sounds quite familiar to the way I saw my father live his life, and I shudder to think what my life would have been like without him.

I might not have gotten all the $89 shirts I wanted, but he left me well stocked with everything I truly need.