About
CigarSmokinFootball came about from a father’s and son’s love of college football and smoking cigars in the evening. Every day for years in Northern Virginia, Col. Richard O. Sutton and his son Jefferson D. Sutton would sit out on the back deck or porch and enjoy cigars to end the day. It was usually just the two of them and conversations just naturally happened. They covered the usually subjects, work, family, church and any other activities, within the first 5 minutes of lighting their cigars. These subjects had to be covered quickly because, according to Kevin Burke in the show, “Defending the Caveman”, “Men generally speak about 2,000 words per day and women 7,000.” So, by cigar time, there was the possibility that they might be coming up on their limit of words and they had to spend the majority of cigar time talking about college football. It didn’t matter which season it was;- Fall was spent talking about upcomeing games or the games that they had watched that day, Winter was spent avoiding the cold and talking about the bowl games and then enduring the end of the season, (never an easy task), Spring-time was spent in reflection and speculation. And, then, the beginning of Summer, and the college football Preview magazines would hit the newsstands! Now they had to read about each and every team and then discuss what they thought of the magazine predictions. After all the magazines were read, digested, analyzed, and researched for accuracy, they would make their own predictions based on what they had observed and what they had read. Usually, there were some differences between what these two amateurs observed and what the analysts saw. These two cigar smokers got the idea to see how close they came to equaling the paid analysts. Come to find out, they were just as good as the guys in the fancy suits that got to go to all the games and do the interviews. The cigarists were wrong about the same amount of time as everyone else, but quite a few of the cigar smokers’ difference were proven accurate. That’s when the idea hit the son, “Why can’t we do this? We’re just as good as the guys in the magazines.” The wiser, elder father said, “You write it, I’ll edit it.” And with that, CigarSmokinFootball.com was born.
Jefferson D. Sutton (The Son): Obviously grew up an Army Brat and he loved it! He was first introduced to football through his big brother, who, while they were stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, joined the local football team. Jefferson was four years younger so he was not allowed to play just yet, but, not to be left out, he was appointed the water boy of the team at the ripe young age of 6 years old, much to the dismay of everyone around, because, anybody within range of getting squirted with water, usually walked away a little wet. When Jefferson reached the fifth grade he was finally able to start playing football, and on that day a lifelong obsession was born. From that season until he was a sophomore in college he was out on the football field. Due to a series of injuries, the football playing had to be given up, but the spirit has endured to this day! Nowadays, his full time jobs are working for US Customs and Border Protection and trying to raise his daughter, who already knows more about football then any boy in her high school. She was the defensive captain of her powderpuff football team. One proud Daddy! He is the author of most of the articles and, since this site includes two of his favorite hobbies, he decided to include photography as well. Most of the pictures are taken by Jefferson, see the SmokinHotModel section.Col. Richard O. Sutton (the Father): the elder, as pointed out. Yep, he was in the Army, actually, for 37.5 years of Active Duty, beginning with his graduation from West Point in 1960 and continuing until his retirement in 2009. Along the way he became a Ranger, Airborne, Special Forces Green Beret, and even an Orthopaedic Surgeon, but he never wavered from his love for College Football. He played in high school, of course, at South Side High School in Memphis, Tennessee, the Scrappers, but he also became the Sports Editor of the school paper, then the Sports Editor of the magazine at West Point, where he also was Chief of the Cadet Sports Information Detail. Throughout his many assignments, he sought ways to work for the Sports Information Department at Memphis State (now the University of Memphis) and UTEP. He had a book published, Operation White Star, but all articles in the CigarSmokinFootball are written by the younger, Jefferson. The elder is the editor. Oh, yes, to account for the deficiency in years between 37.5 and graduation in 1960, he spent 13.5 years in private Orthopaedic Practice, but that was merely an interlude in the Military Career. There is the Mom, Dianne, going on 52 years in her role, another son, elder to Jefferson, Rick, and two daughters, Suzanne and Jennifer. Lots of cats, Boxer dogs, a bunch of fish, and now eight (8) grandchildren.