Well, if you know me, you know what team I follow, college-wise, when it comes to the sporting life. And thus, you're well aware that I might understandably be in less than a great mood this past week.
Because my team got beat.
Not abysmally, at least (not like last year), but our in-state rivals do indeed have something called "bragging rights" over us for the next year, as they've had the previous three times the two giants of the college gridiron have met. Bloody hell, you'd think the opposing team's fans would learn to be classier about it.
But you can't teach class to some folks...
In the end, I feel a weight lifted off of me, in this respect; I can watch other teams in the college sporting world and not give a damn one way or the other about the situation, because when you don't have a dog in that fight you can sit back and watch two teams try their mightiest not to repeat the Alabama-LSU "Field Goal Competition" of last season. That was an underwhelming four hours of my life I'd like to have back.
Being a sports fan is a bit like being in a cult; after a while, the kool-aid doesn't work anymore and you wake up with a sense that maybe you could be doing more with your life. Books could be read; families could be together; life could be richer and more meaningful.
Then the next season begins, your team starts to do good, and you get sucked in all over again.
Thank goodness for Jane Austen; I've been reading Persuasion this past week, to take my mind off the football mess (sports books are no longer appealing to me, might be a while before I want to read any), and as ridiculous as I find some of the aspects of her books (people in the nineteenth century sure didn't know how important a good punter could be to pinning the opposition back beyond their own twenty-yard-line, for instance), they're just diverting enough to get the sour taste of defeat out of my system. And hey, I still got my New York Football Giants; they crushed the Packers Sunday night. Go Big Blue!
Oh good, it's not even bowl season yet...
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