Football season is back and let me tell you, the gear has gotten genuinely good. I've been through a lot of tailgating eras, and I remember when your options were a styrofoam cooler, a folding chair that pinched your fingers, and a bag of charcoal. That was it. That was the whole menu. Now we've got wheeled coolers that could survive a rollover, grills that fold up like a briefcase, and chairs with cup holders that actually hold a cup. It's a different world.

A new roundup over on MSN collects more than 20 of these upgrades, and it's worth a look if you're the person in your group who arrives first and leaves last. My family always assigns me the cooler, by the way. Forty years of being the tech auntie apparently also qualifies you as the beverage logistics department.

A few things jumped out at me. The coolers are doing the most this year: better insulation, all-terrain wheels, some with built-in tables so you're not balancing a plate on your knee like it's 1985. The grills keep getting more portable without giving up much cooking space, which matters when your crew shows up hungry. And the chairs... don't get me started on how far those have come. Reclining, canopied, some with enough storage to double as a small pantry.

My usual advice applies here too, the same thing I say about smart home gadgets: buy the thing that solves an actual problem for you. If your cooler breaks every season, a rugged one is money well spent. If you tailgate twice a year, maybe don't drop four hundred dollars on a grill with Bluetooth. Technology should work for you, not the other way around, and that goes double when there's a brisket involved.

The full list is worth browsing before your first kickoff. Pick one or two items, not everything, and enjoy the season. And if you find a chair your mother-in-law can get out of without assistance, write to me immediately. I've been looking for years.