The End of College Football Season

As I sit here blogging, a college football bowl game is on television. All of the men who live in my house are out for the evening, so it's just me and my daughter with the football game. She doesn't watch, but she agrees that it is comforting to have the game on as background.
I love football.
True, I cringe when the loud crack of a helmet hitting someone resounds from the television speakers, but I love to watch the games.
I think when I was young, similar to Grace, I didn't so much watch football. But I grew up with two brothers and a father who watched. When I moved out on my own, I found myself turning to football to feel at home.
Now I'm kind of addicted. I'll rarely go to a social event at the same time our local university is playing football. I don't want to miss the game.
It's been a long run of good play for Ohio State. The past two seasons, they've lost only one game. It's tough to root for a team that is losing, but a little boring to root for a team that wins all the time.

But the Ohio State Buckeyes lost a game and they have one more game to play this season on Friday night.

I think I'm ready, for the first time in many years, for college football to finish. I think I know more about the players and the teams than I usually do, but I'm not as emotionally connected. 

Maybe I'll change my mind as the game draws to a close on Friday and Ohio State completes its season. There will be one more big game on Monday night -- the national championship. But I'll be tempted to turn to The Bachelor instead. After all, Juanuary only comes around once in a lifetime, and this year's bachelor, Juan Pablo, might trump a field full of college boys. 

Football Funk

I love football, especially college football, as I've written before.
Saturday night, instead of meeting friends and going to antoher friend's stage production, I stayed home to watch football. I felt a little sheepish admitting to my friend Linda that I was obsessed with watching college-age men run the football up and down the field. Of course, I also had papers to grade, so I could fall back on that, but the real reason was that I wanted to watch.
What I am learning is that football is not nearly as much fun if my favorite team is losing. So that's been a double whammy for me this year.
Living in Columbus, I root for Ohio State, and that has served me well the entire 13 years we've been here. They've been a good team. A top 25 team.
Not this year.
Saturday night, I felt my mood rising as a totally new Ohio State team took a commanding lead. Where were these guys the previous 5 weeks, I wondered. I was happy. I texted Spencer to update him on the score since he was working.
Then halfway through the third quarter, with a 27 to 6 lead, the quarterback got hurt and suddenly the entire team fell apart. They ended up losing.
Zoom. My mood plummeted.
The second whammy is that my favorite professional team, the Pittsburgh Steelers have also been off to a slow start. I didn't even bother to watch them on Sunday. I was surprised to find they won!
So, what I learned is that I love football, but mostly, I love winning football.
Guess I'm the fair weather fan after all.