God, family and the Green Bay Packers.

That is what Bernie Boyle says is his life’s motto. I’m not sure that is 100 percent accurate, though.

Bernie, the man we call “Saint Bernard” without a hint of irony, always puts the wants and the needs of his fellow man high on his list. You see that when he devotes an average of 28 hours each day to the Knights of Columbus Hall and its good deeds.

Recently, I even saw him wear a Chicago Bears shirt while playing cribbage at the KC. He didn’t lose a bet. Rather, he said he was doing it to support his Bears fans friends like me.

Bernie asked me when I was going to do the same for him and wear a Packers shirt. There is only one day a year I will wear anything Packers — Feb. 31 — so he won’t be holding his breath.

I would cheer for Bozeman before I would cheer for the Packers.

Yes, Bernie is way more supportive of his friends than I am.

I also suspect there is one sports team Bernie loves more than the Packers. That would be the Butte Central Maroons.

You can see that in the millions of videos of Dougie Peoples’ game-winning shot in the championship game of the 2022 Class A State boys’ basketball tournament in Missoula. While he did not lose his mind like BC assistant coach Renzy Kelly, Bernie was clearly one of the happiest guys on the planet that night.

Check out one of the videos to see what I mean. You can spot Bernie by his yellow BC hat.

Perhaps Bernie is counting his Central fandom in the “God” part of his motto since BC is a Catholic school. But I don’t think so.

If he were asked if to choose between one Butte Central state championship in football or 10 straight Super Bowl wins by the Packers, I know without a hint of doubt that Bernie would choose the Maroons.

He would not even hesitate.

Still, last Friday night must have been a bit difficult for Bernie. The Maroons and Packers were playing at the same time.

Butte Central played its home opener on the Bob Green Field at Montana Tech, and the Maroons beat Hamilton 22-21 in an overtime thriller.

Central overcame a 15-0 deficit, and took a 22-15 lead when Justus McGee scored on a 5-yard run in overtime. Hamilton answered, but the Broncs were stopped on their 2-point conversion.

The late Pat Kearney would have gone full Kermit The Frog on his radio call if he were still around to see one of the best Central wins in the last decade.

I was in Bozeman watching my son and the Butte High Bulldogs play the Hawks, so I did not get to watch the Maroons pull out the win live. But I would bet that Bernie was one of the happiest guys on the planet that night.

At least he was until he saw that his Packers lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in Brazil and Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love suffered a knee injury. So, the night was probably bitter sweet for Bernie. But it had to be way more sweet than bitter.

It is puzzling why the NFL would have teams open their season in Brazil. It is even more puzzling why the NFL would open the season on a Friday night.

When forced to choose between the NFL or their high school team, most of us are going to pick the kids. That goes double if you have a relative on the team. But it is not an easy decision.

Friday night lights have always been for the high school players. The NFL in all its sell-out glory should never even attempt to step on that.

For years, we have followed the pattern. Fridays are from high school games, Saturdays are for college, and Sunday and Mondays are from the NFL. That should never be messed with.

Over the last few years, the NFL decided to take over Thursdays — the safety of its players be dammed.

The sporting world adjusted to that, but I have yet to meet a person who likes NFL games on Thursdays that are not Thanksgiving.

Last year, the NFL decided to offer a day full of games on Christmas Day, thumbing its nose at the long tradition of the NBA owning that holiday.

While that was disrespectful to the NBA, those of us who never watch the NBA did not care.

Dissing the high school teams around the country, though, is a totally different story.

That is exactly what the NFL is doing with its Friday night season opener, too. It is telling the high school teams that they don’t matter.

While I assume Bernie was at the BC-Hamilton game, he probably had his attention diverted a bit by watching the Packers play on his phone. I would have to image a lot of phones were broadcasting the game in the stands of high school games around the country.

Many fans probably even stayed home from supporting their local teams to watch the NFL, taking away money and enthusiasm from their schools.

Friday nights in the fall are magical — even if your team does not pull out a thrilling overtime victory. That goes double for the Friday nights when the weather is still good.

As a player, band member, cheerleader, parent or fan, it just doesn’t get any better than a high school football game on a Friday night. Nothing says “welcome to the weekend” like high school football.

That is why people pack the stadiums — big and small — around the state and country every Friday night. Those huge stadiums in Texas are full, and so are the small sets of bleachers in every small town in between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

Football is king in America, and the NFL is the top of the sport. It’s ratings long since passed up baseball and basketball, and every owner of an NFL team is a billionaire.

Part of that reason is just about every boy — and a whole lot of girls — grow up cheering for an NFL team. So many of us identify with our NFL teams as if we were part owners. We also judge others by the team they root for.

If I wear my Bears hat to a store in the fall, I will have several people talk to me about the latest games. Then they will inevitably tell me about their NFL teams. Or they will tell me about their fantasy football teams.

That doesn’t happen when I wear my Red Sox hat — even if Boston is currently playing in the World Series.

(Note for Yankees fans out there: The World Series is when the National League champion plays the American League champion every October.)

A World Series game being played on a Friday night in the high school football season will not hurt the high school game much.

Also, fans have the choice to stay home and watch the NFL or go to the high school game. The players do not. So, the NFL is only hurting itself by competing against the kids. Those players can’t watch the game because the NFL is pandering to try to get some more foreign fans.

The NFL is, as they say, cutting off its nose to spite its face by alienating thousands and thousands of potential viewers to instead woo people who would rather watch soccer.

It just might go down as one of the worst moves the league has ever made.

Hopefully, going up against so many high school games severely hurt the ratings for the Packers-Eagles game. Maybe that way, the NFL will leave the Friday nights to the high school players.

Then Bernie and the rest of us will never be faced with such a tough decision.

— Bill Foley, who also breaks out Yankee colors on Feb. 31, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74. Listen to him on the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.