A quick glance at my friends’ statuses on the Facebook will confirm: It’s college football season again. At the time of writing this, seven of the most recent ten updates are “Go Gators!” and a lone “Go Noles!” although to be fair, they don’t play until Monday. Try as I might, I’ve never got whole-heartedly, drop-all-else into American football. Plenty of people have tried to explain it to me, and I’ve been to Superbowl parties and even an ACC Championship game. And while I’m definitely more into “football” – at the college level, at least; the NFL still holds no appeal – I have trouble with paying attention to a fixture for more than three hours at a time.
All that said, I really do enjoy the game-day atmosphere. This is the first season in six years where I’m not in a college town, and I do miss the environment, the team unity, the tailgates, and for want of a better word, the inebriation, that a home game brings. My experience in Gainesville over the last three years lacked some of this excitement because at my house, we sold parking to match attendees, and this overlapped with pre-game festivities. By the time we were done, everyone would be settled inside the stadium, so there’d be no fun left.
Since FSU is facing Miami on Monday in Tallahassee, I’m reminded of my favourite experience – four years ago today. Again, Miami were up in Tallahassee on Labor Day (a Monday), and as you might expect, the drinking began sometime early on Friday. After something of a rest for a couple of days, I got the call on Sunday at lunchtime that everyone was meeting at Tim’s. These were the days when I didn’t have a car, so someone came and picked me up, and after picking up a 24-pack, we got to Tim’s house. We spent the next thirty hours drinking, barbecuing, watching sports and movies – it was one of the most fun nights of my college career. In the morning, we went to the supermarket, bought eggs and made breakfast for about twelve people, all of whom had made it through the night.
The house was a few blocks from the stadium, and on the way there, we joined an ever-growing throng of painted people heading to the game. In the stadium parking lot there were more burgers and beers, and by the time we sat down, we’d been awake for about forty straight hours. I don’t know if this is a standard thing for hardcore football fans before every home game, but for a curmudgeon like me, it was taking its toll. At half time, FSU was up 10-7, and I could barely keep my eyes open. I headed home – an uphill walk on Pensacola St. that took far longer than it ought to – and went straight to sleep. Luckily for me, no more points were scored in the second half, so I didn’t miss anything.
I definitely miss the days of spending entire days doing nothing but feeling like it’s everything. And even though following one football team is stressful enough, I promise: I’ll try and care more about the college game this season. For at least a week.
And now for an old favourite.
A drinking town with a football problem
The scarf is for football
I know that most of you reading this probably don't care too much about football, and especially not the Carling Cup, but indulge me a little, because this week there were some really great results and stories. Which is nice, since the Carling Cup is the third most prestigious domestic competition in England, so it's often an afterthought, accompanied by a shrug and a who-cares. But not this week! (PS - I don't want to end up sounding like this guy)
Arsenal 6 - Sheffield United 0
I have to begin with this one. The average age of the Arsenal team that started this match was 19, their youngest ever. And while Sheffield United are in a lower league, they were in the Premiership not long ago (the debate is still raging in courtrooms about that) and therefore would be no pushover. But our kids knocked them out. A hat-trick from Carlos Vela, who was starting his first competitive match! His second, in particular, was a peach. As an Arsenal fan, it often gets frustrating to hear "We've got great young players, in a few years' time they'll win trophies" but nights like this make it worth the wait.
Brighton 2 - Man City 2 (Brighton won 5-3 on penalties)
Manchester City are the world's richest club. They just signed the most expensive player in English history. At the weekend they put six past Portsmouth, who are no slouches. And yet, they just got beaten - on penalties, no less - by a team who, this past weekend, lost to nine-man Walsall. This is the kind of result where you just have to rub your eyes and say "What?!"
Newcastle 1 - Tottenham 2
This was one of those matches where I wished that both teams would lose. Newcastle are currently undergoing a huge, and dare I say, hilarious, meltdown. Their hugely-popular manager was fired, leaving the club in the hands of a beer-downing millionaire who's way out of his depth. Their season has already imploded, and yet they still had a chance against Spurs, who're rock bottom of the Premiership after selling all their decent players. Spurs got the win, but not being bottom of the league is probably their greater priority at the moment. Also, they're Arsenal's big local rivals, so any failures they encounter are, as a rule, hilarious to me.
Watford 1 - West Ham 0
I was in New York over the weekend seeing some old friends, one of whom is a Watford fan. Hopefully at least one of you will appreciate his Luther Blissett t-shirt. At the weekend, they had the world's biggest refereeing blunder go against them. So, it was great to see them pull off a pretty big upset against West Ham, a team with a high-profile new manager, who are a league above. I love it when Premiership teams (that aren't Arsenal) get knocked out by lower teams. See ya later, Fulham and Villa!
Liverpool, Chelsea and Man Utd all won their fixtures, so we'll see how interesting the next round is.
Also, this:
Some things for a Wednesday
List!
- Isn't this sort of tacky? Not just the "WIN A THREESOME!" gaudiness, but the typeface, the layout, the use of "dude(ette)" and the use of a pair of lips as an O. It'd still be kind of boss to win, mind. [ScarlettJohansson.com]
- As you know, R. Kelly fascinates me. So, I sincerely enjoyed and heartily recommend Josh Levin's full, ninety-minute commentary, of K's recent trial. [Slate]
- If you haven't already, have a look at some of the crap in Roland Emmerich's house. (And no, I don't mean the 10,000BC screenplay. Zing!) [NYT]
- See how good you are with film posters. Me? I got 28. [Empire]
- If there's a better news headline that this, I haven't heard it. [Guardian]
- Are you Tom's friend yet? Why not? Do it now! Get him to 5000. [Myspace]
- It's almost here! [Premier League]
The lad from Knockbridge County
To some extent, I'm very glad that Euro 2008 has been getting good coverage in the States. All the matches have been on one of the ESPN channels, as was the case in '06 with the World Cup. Even though the sport generally, and the European Championships more specifically, aren't of interest to most U.S. sports-watchers, it's nice that they're being given air time.
What is a shame, though, is the poor level of analysis and commentary that ESPN has. Here's an article that well articulates the failings of the "worldwide leader in sports". Gotta give a shout out to the "gnome" Tommy Smyth. He does most of the co-commentating on ESPN, along with Derek Rae, who is fine. Smyth, though, is really grating. Unlike your Robbie Earles and your Trevor Francises and your David Pleats, dude has no experience as a big time player or manager. Sorry, but the German American Soccer League doesn't quite count as "big time". That said, fair play to him for getting the job seemingly on the basis of "sounding like he knows what he's talking about". Smyth spouts all the usual cliches and nonsense that you'd expect, along with some truly great phrases. "Why's his arm that high up? Is he calling a cab? There's no cabs in the stadium!"
His catchphrase, if you will, is "bulge in the ol' onion bag", which really doesn't mean anything. It's not even, like, an old-fashioned saying, which we can forgive on account of the man's advanced years. Nobody in the history of time, sports or television has ever said "back of the ol' onion bag"! I'd tell you more about Mr. Smyth, but an Irish singer-songwriter called Aine Woods has done that for me. I'm not kidding. Click here to listen to her song 'New York Grand Marshall'.
Look! There is a cow!
It's rare that I get a lot of work done in one night, but for once, today I have the time to write all the things I've been meaning to for a while. Having said that, the "Open Letter to the girl in the top-left of the picture at Hillary Clinton's victory speech in West Virginia" that I was planning is probably old hat by now, so you'll just have to guess what that would have entailed.
Anyway. Last week I managed to catch 'The Cesc Fabregas Show' - a bad idea poorly executed. I don't know if you've seen the clip of him staying cool, but it's pretty awesome, unlike the rest of this elaborate and unnecessary 'This Is Your Life' style tribute. The hosts were two comedians I'd never heard of, who weren't very funny. One of them called Mrs. Fabregas a "yummy mummy" in front of Cesc, which just seemed tasteless. There was one pretty funny sketch with Matt Lucas, and one terrible one from Paul Kaye. Cesc kept his cool throughout, though, and looked like he was taking it in good grace, despite the people coming to big him up. I mean, there was nobody more charismatic than Big Phil Senderos, Bendtner, and Paul Merson? (Arsene Wenger and living legend Mickey Thomas get free passes). Maybe it was better to actually be there - Goodplaya was, and he enjoyed himself.
In other news, I don't have much to say about last night's Champions League final. It's a pity that both teams couldn't lose, but it was a good match to watch as a neutral. It's also a pity that Ashley Cole didn't get hit by a bus. Also, congratulations to Celtic on another SPL victory tonight.That Rangers/Celtic match with the handball on the line and the Nakamura screamer and the injury time winner and the big fight at the end is probably my match of the season.
Who should I cheer for in Euro 2008?
