Game Day Fun

It’s almost fall, and you know what that means: the weather is cooling off, there’s a nice easy breeze blowing through the now colorful foliage, the rush of summertime is gone and life seems to be slowing down, and of course, and most importantly, football! After a long summer season of nothing but baseball and the occasional spelling bee, it’s great to finally get a sport worth watching. Now don’t get me wrong, the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest is a thrill a minute, watching those tiny Japanese guys out eating our oversized American competitors, but it’s just not the same as football. What’s up with that though? We are a nation that thrives on fast food, deep fried Twinkies, and anything that is high in cholesterol, but we can’t win a hot dog eating contest. I think we got screwed on that deal.

Back to the subject at hand: football. I don’t know about you, but I am a huge fan of college football. The NFL is ok, but I usually don’t pay much attention until the playoffs. Well, except for Chicago, I always cheer for the Bears (pronounced: “DA Bears”). When it comes right down to it though, I think college teams play with more heart and passion for the game than do the professionals who seem mostly interested in signing bonuses. I also like the college set-up better. You don’t have to wait until Christmas for the playoffs to begin, in college they begin in September. Lose one game and you’re out of the national championship. Last year the Ohio State vs. Texas game in the second week of the season was probably one of the biggest (if not the biggest) in determining who was going to the National Championship game. Then, Texas beat Ohio State and they went on to win the National Championship. This year the Buckeyes won. Will they be able to pull off a run to the final? We’ll have to wait and see.

Of course, my favorite college team is the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. Unfortunately, rooting for the Tar Heels isn’t the easiest thing to do. The football program isn’t quite on par with its rich basketball tradition. And you know what, that’s ok. You can’t really expect perfection in both programs. But it is nice to watch the football team pull off an upset every once in a while. The first Carolina sporting event I went to was the 2001 football game against Florida State where the Tar Heels thoroughly embarrassed the Seminoles, 41-9. Of course, that doesn’t happen very often, especially now that UNC has to play both Virginia Tech and Miami (of Florida) every year.

For those of you not in the know, last Saturday was the UNC game versus Virginia Tech. I had the distinct pleasure of attending. Ok, maybe it was a pleasure for most of the first quarter, but that’s about it. We don’t need to go into the details about the game, because that would just make me cry again. And you don’t want to make me cry, do you? Let’s just say the Carolina offense seems to take the field with only one goal in mind: to throw an interception. I mean really, that’s how it appeared to me.

Like I said, there’s no need to talk about the game, but I do want to talk about being at the game. College football is an experience like no other. In some collegiate stadiums the fans get so loud when their team is on defense, that the opposing quarterback cannot call an audible on the field because his teammates cannot hear him above the roar (for the record, its doesn’t get quite that loud in Kenan stadium). When was the last time that ever happened at a professional game? So I’ll give you a quick run down of my college football experience last weekend.

First off, since it was a 12pm game, I had to get up at 10am (waking up before noon is, as a generally rule, something I just don’t do). I drove into Chapel Hill early enough to miss most of the nasty traffic and find a decent parking place. Of course, being a college town, parking is a pain in the butt, and there’s people walking all over the place, so it’s far too easy and far too tempting to run over the pedestrians wearing Virginia Tech t-shirts. After getting the car parked, I met my friend on campus and hung out before game time to listen to the band. This is mainly because his girlfriend is in the band. And before you jump to any conclusions there are some pretty attractive band geeks, believe it or not. It is Carolina, and I have it on good authority that Carolina girls are the best in the world.

I have to admit, the band is pretty good. They did a rendition of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit that was reasonably true to the song. Well, except for the fact that they didn’t have any electric guitars. I felt a little odd about that, I know the band is trying to be hip, but grunge music without the guitars? That’s like eating strawberry shortcake without the strawberries. I mean, yeah the shortcake tastes good on its own, but shortcake has pretty much no point unless there’s strawberries involved in some way.

After the band finished its pre-game rituals, they took off from the quad and marched to the stadium. We followed behind in the mass of people and once again I had to suppress the urge to enact some very random acts of violence on people wearing Virginia Tech shirts. Although I have to admit, the Virginia Tech fans were very well behaved for the most part. Much better behaved than NC State fans have ever been. But I can’t blame the Wolfpack fans, I mean, if I had to walk through a bunch of tractors and cows on my way to class everyday, I’d be pretty pissed off too. What I haven’t been able to figure out though, is how all those cows can graze on NC State’s campus when the campus is completely paved over in bricks. I guess it’s just one of those mysteries of life.

Unfortunately, most of the seats in Kenan Stadium don’t have any shade and the sun can easily overheat you and give you some really bad tan lines. Thankfully, I didn’t have to deal with that, our seats had shade. Looking out over the stadium, you can see a sea of Carolina blue, as all the students, parents, alumni, and even faculty were wearing their school colors. Unfortunately there was a rather large consortium of Virginia Tech fans in attendance who were sitting around our section. By the way, can anyone tell me what a Hokie is? I’ve yet to discover this for myself.

We can just skip the events of the game, and I think you all know why. At least the Carolina dancers were in attendance, which was one upside of the day. Now some of you may be wondering why a school would need a dance squad when we already have a cheerleading squad. Well, let’s see… they're college coeds in tight pants and halter tops. Enough said. Unlike most of the other people in attendance, we stayed for the entire length of the game, even though the game was over probably before the fourth quarter even started. I have always stayed to the end of every game just so I can sing the alma mater. It’s called school pride. Or at least I think that's what it's called. I’m not entirely sure, I skipped most of my orientation when they went over all that stuff. The orientation leaders were all so upbeat and “super happy.” It was annoying.

So what have we learned today? Football is better than baseball, hands down. Yes, there are attractive girls in the band. You just don’t notice them because you’re too busy staring at the dance team and the cheerleaders. Strawberry shortcake makes a horrible metaphor for grunge music. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, as long as you have more points than the other team. And last of all, Carolina may have lost to Virginia Tech this weekend, but at least they didn’t lose to Akron. I mean, NC State losing to Akron, now that’s just sad.