College Football

I attended an OSU football game (thats The Ohio State University, doncha know) last weekend. I attended a small college (whose football team was excellent (in that small college football way (which is to say we had the best players among the worst group of players in football))). Football games at Dinkburg U. were pretty much a fun diversion if you didn't have anything else to do, and weren't overly hung over.

At the horseshoe, however, it's a different universe.

Now, I'm not stupid or naive (although I did once say that we should give poor misunderstood Albert Belle a break, so I may not be the best judge of my own naivete). Still, I was not prepared for the roiling sea of scarlet and grey, for the mountain of noise within that stadium, for the passion that exploded when the players entered the field.

Three rows ahead of me sat a little old lady, hair as grey as a Cleveland winter....with scarlet spots painted on her head.

I know, I know, college sports has become a hypocritical big business, one in which the primary employees do not participate in the profits. I know, I know.....but the pageantry and ritual and unabashed love there gave me a warm and happy feeling anyway.


When the best damn band in the land spelled out the script "Ohio", I literally got goose bumps...and that's been a while.