Thank God that’s finally over.
I’m not a college football fan. I never have been a college football fan. In fact, I hate it. I hate the bullshit bowl system. I hate the shadowy world of recruiting and the fact that people pretend that these inflated jocks are students. College football players aren’t students and they aren’t amateurs. They are hired guns who cheat in school are paid to play. Not all of them, of course, but just any of them good enough to one day play on Sundays are. We all know this – just like we know that Marijuana isn’t medicine – but fans of the game turn a blind eye and root, root, root for their favorite school.
I’m not a college football fan. I never have been a college football fan. In fact, I hate it. I hate the bullshit bowl system. I hate the shadowy world of recruiting and the fact that people pretend that these inflated jocks are students. College football players aren’t students and they aren’t amateurs. They are hired guns who cheat in school are paid to play. Not all of them, of course, but any of them good enough to one day play on Sundays are. We all know this – just like we know that Marijuana isn’t medicine – but fans of the game turn a blind eye and root, root, root for their favorite school.
The sole objective of every college football program in America is to generate dollars by the millions to prop up every other aspect of the University – especially it’s lesser sports programs. Boosters back up the Brinks truck year after year, but only if the football team is winning. It’s crap.
Still, I find myself feigning college football fandom once every year – when the CU Buffs play the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
I married a Husker. She doesn’t give two shits about football but the rest of her family lives, eats, breathes and wipes their asses with it. They all have the obligitory big red letter “N” on everything they own. It’s on a flag in front of their houses, it’s on their cars. It’s on their wallets, their sweaters, their coats, their teddy bears, their refrigerators, anything that doesn’t have the number of their favorite NASCAR driver on it. And I am the boy from Colorado.
These people have never taken “I don’t really follow college football” as an answer. Ever since I first visited Lincoln for thanksgiving almost 15 years ago I have been goaded by my in-laws for being a Buffs fan. Over time it just stuck. I started making fun of them back in 2001 when CU finally beat Big Red after nearly a decade of getting their asses handed to them. After that it was “on”. I can’t get past Kearney without someone teasing me about the Buffaloes. I have even learned a thing or two about the program simply so I won’t look like an idiot when I half-heartedly defend it.
Truth be told, I would almost rather root for Nebraska. How can you not like a team once called the Bug Eaters? I can’t, though. I would have to relinquish my role as contrarian and that’s not any fun. I don’t have to root on the Buffs anymore, though, because after the 45-17 pasting they took at the hands of the Pelini brothers today, the Buffs and the Huskers will no longer share a conference. As far as I know they might never play each other again. The rivalry is dead.
Thank God.
The Buffs are moving on to the Pac 12 and I no longer have to pretend to care that they suck. I wish my wife had family in Hawaii. Thanksgiving in Maui would sure be nice.
