Just sharing some of my totally random thoughts....
Maybe you have to be from a "Football University," or live in a college football town to understand, but there is a certain deeply-rooted tradition, pride, respect and... general understanding in college football that you can't find anywhere else.
Today, is BCS Championship Game Eve, in Florida. (Speaking of BCS, did I mention that there is also a shared frustration in college football?) Tomorrow, #1 Oklahoma Sooners will take on the #2 Florida Gators in the BCS Title game, which happens to take place in Miami, Florida(Advantage Gators). Which means the city's, already present, Blue and Orange, is being met with quite a bit of Oklahoma's Crimson and Cream. (I wonder if they realize how stupid those colors sound together?)
Anyway, it has always amazed me that you can go anywhere in Florida and say, "Go Gators!" and get a response. I guess it is similar to yelling, "We are..." in Pennsylvania, or chanting "O-H" in Ohio. But now, the hotels are filled with entire Sooner families, you can't turn on the radio without hearing about Tim Tebow or how Florida theaters are broadcasting the game in 3-D. It is BCS Title insanity.
Even college football fans, that aren't Gators or Sooners, have an opinion, on the game. On my drive this morning, I listened to a 20 minute argument between a Miami Hurricane and a Florida State Seminole about whether or not they had to root for the home team.
Don't get me wrong, professional football fans can be just as crazy and loyal, and I love my WORLD CHAMPION NY FOOTBALL GIANTS, but this is different.
In college football, players play for their school, their pride and for the right to say "I am number one." In college football, every single game matters and every game counts; One loss
really is the end of the world. True college football fans, don't miss a game because that could be the one game that makes or breaks their entire season and it could occur,
at any time. As a matter of fact, real college football fans don't even attend weddings, funerals or the births of children on Saturdays between August and January. ("My game is on!")
In College football....A Seven Year old girl's only birthday wish is to meet a 21 year old QB...
An entire stadium can be turned white....and its okay for 110,000 people to wear the same shirt...
It is okay for a dog to lick your baby...
Race isn't black and white, but red and black...and...
Orange and white...
"I's" are dotted with people, not pens...
Burning couches isn't arson, but tradition (well, it is still arson, too)...
Dangerous animals run rampant....
Because tradition and mascot accuracy is more important than public safety. (Except FSU,
that was
not an Indian!)
I have always known and had this blue and white pride and a general excitement for college football that makes my heart beat 10,000 beats/minute, as we count down to kick off. And I have always loved college football, but I have been out of Nittany Lion Country for a while now. However, this morning something about the collegiate pride in the air and breakfast, reminded me, why College Football Rocks! (yeah, I am just now getting around to that).
This morning I went to breakfast with some Florida Gators (the fans, not the reptile) and we arrived, shortly after some Oklahoma Sooner fans. When we sat down, our waitress had already given them menus and taken their drink orders and was about to take their food orders. She then brought us menus, but it didn't matter, I always get the same thing. Anywany, she returned to our table and took our orders, about 15 minutes later she brought out our food and we ate next to the Sooner fans, in their Crimson and Cream attire, who were still waiting for their food. We finished eating and asked for the check...it was
then that the Sooner fan's, finally got their food.
The fact that the waitress shunned them for the giant Oklahoma O on their chests, is not what makes college football rock, although it is a contributing factor. What rocks is that, of course they noticed, how could they not? But they didn't complain or ask for a manager, they just understood. They were in enemy territory, they were in Gator Country and their "college football blood" told them that, had we been eating in Oklahoma, it would be the
Gator's that would be waiting for the food
they ordered first. They just sucked it up and added it to the reasons they want to beat the Gators tomorrow.
And tomorrow they will tell their Sooner friends about it and it will only further fuel their desire to win. And the entire city of Miami will be sold out of beer and hot dogs, the roads will be parking-lots of fans from all over the country, getting to the stadium, in time to tailgate...at 11 a.m...whether or not they have tickets. Most of them spent several 1,000 dollars to see their team play one "football hour" (which is more like 3 regular hours), under the bright lights of Dolphins stadium, for the chance to be No. 1. The rest of us, college football fans, will watch on television (or in the 3-D theater), but all of us will have an opinion (even the Nittany Lions!) and on that note....
GO GATORS!That is why College Football Rocks!
