They will make the now-trite post-tragedy gestures at college football stadiums around the country Saturday (though the number continues to dwindle). Flags will be dipped to half staff, arm bands or decals will be worn, a moment of silence will be observed.

Then we will strike up the band, move crisply to the opening kickoff, drink a few beers, cuss out a few opposing fans and scream like idiots for the television cameras. These are the rituals we hold so sacred in our "American way of life" that we simply cannot go a single September weekend without them.

And in that motion we will go beyond the gestures and get to the cold truth that the day reflects: College Sports Inc., cannot be canceled. It is bigger than life -- bigger than the lives lost on Tuesday.

At least, that's what was on the schedule before everyone finally wised up and canceled the games. Maybe it was because the NFL canceled its Week 2 schedule. Maybe it was because the players and coaches made a late plea. Who knows. Who cares.

We should take the weekend off, of course. A single weekend.

We should take the weekend off before piling our unpaid labor pool of players and their fans onto planes or into unsecured stadiums. We should take the weekend off to show the proper respect for those killed, injured and bereaved by the incomprehensibly sinister succession of terrorist attacks in the United States. We should take the weekend off from kiddie games to fully absorb events deserving of our undivided attention, our understanding and our grief.

Amazingly enough, this apparently bears repeating: The worst attack ever on American soil occurred on Tuesday, and we're supposed to skip back into our sporting daydream again by Saturday? How scarily self-interested and desensitized are we?

If Americans feel the need to gather somewhere in this time of crisis, make it the local church, synagogue or mosque. Not the local stadium.

If Americans want to show support for the victims, do it at the Red Cross blood donor center. Not with a five-minute pregame dog-and-pony show designed more to alleviate guilt before the show begins.

Question for those trolling this web site today: Do you know more about the Titans or the Taliban? Doesn't this seem like an excellent time to alter that imbalance, instead of rushing back out to the ball yard in an effort to escape the real world?

But not all of us will. The games were ready to go on in the Southeastern Conference, the Big 12, the Big Ten and other leagues, at least for schools who wish to play. Football is big in those places -- big enough that hypocrisies cling to the sport like barnacles. Today we see just how big.

Bigger than life.

The SEC made a statement Wednesday, hoping to throw money at the potential PR backlash. It pledged $1 million from game and television revenue toward the relief effort -- pocket change for schools that earn much more than that with every home game. It averages out to about $77,000 per school, less than what the NCAA says an Alabama booster offered to pay for the services of a star defensive tackle recruit from Memphis.

The machismo addicted want the games to go on, because cancellation shows that "they" won. You know what? They did win Round One. They have the videotape and the bodies and the fractured skyline to prove it, and playing football Saturday does not present a credible counterpoint.

The seats of world commerce and world power were savagely attacked in cold blood. Great buildings were reduced to rubble. The president of the United States wound up underground in Nebraska for a time.

Extremists already danced in the streets of several foreign countries. Does postponing a few football games really add to the glee? Would the celebration begin anew on the West Bank if we postponed Tennessee-Florida?

If playing football helps contrive an air of normalcy, and if contrived normalcy in these most abnormal times is a deterrent to terrorism, then why doesn't it work for Israel? No country maintains a more stoic insistence on not acknowledging the disruptions of terrorism. And no country is a more chronic terrorism target.

These apparently are questions and topics that do not bother the commissioners and athletic directors at many of the nation's leading football institutions. They've made their decision. Thankfully, they changed it.

They were going to play ball Saturday.

And in doing so, they made a tacit admission. They don't truly appreciate the gravity of what happened Tuesday.

Pat Forde is a columnist for the Louisville Courier-Journal and a regular contributor to ESPN.com.