I love
football season.
Let me say
that again.
I LOVE football season.
It’s one of
the very few times of the year I look forward to. The others are the end of tourist season
(which is what today is; YAY!) and winter.
I’m one of those people who prefer the cold and beautiful desolation of
bare trees to the summer months.
But
football season...
Nothing
gets the blood pumping like sitting on the edge of your seat, anxiously
awaiting the snap to see if your team can push the ball down the field that one
last measure to get the first down or the touchdown or to put it into field
goal range for a game-winning kick.
I used to
be a rabid baseball fan in high school.
My high school in west Louisiana
was so small that we weren’t able to have a football team. Not that I regret loving baseball; I was
equipment manager and, later, bookkeeper for the team during three and a half
of my four years in high school. I grew
up watch WGN rooting for the Cubs and booing the Atlanta Braves (though I
definitely admired their pitching staff in the 90’s with Greg Maddux, John
Smoltz, and Tom Glavine).
When I
married my wife, I married into a family steeped
in LSU football. It was a big tradition
to watch the LSU-Arkansas game on the Friday after Thanksgiving with extended
family and cringe at every blown play by the Tigers. My late father-in-law had not only been in
Tiger Band at one point, but he had been Mike the Tiger for 2 years in the
early 80’s.
To borrow
the line from Hank, Jr., LSU Football was “a family tradition.”
It’s not
that I didn’t watch football growing up.
In Louisiana
you generally support the Saints. But
the New Orleans team of the 1980’s was so notoriously bad that fashionable wear
at the Super Dome included a paper bag from Schwegmann’s with two eye-holes cut
out so the wearer could comfortably view the game in the safety of
anonymity.
Living in
west Louisiana ,
you have another option: the Dallas Cowboys.
When I was growing up, very early on mind you, the Cowboys were headed
by the venerable and legendary Tom Landry.
Names like Danny White and Tony Dorsett were easily recognized by their
fans. Interestingly enough, I was a fan
of both teams when I was 5 years old.
After the Cowboys ungraciously sacked Landry in 1989, I turned away from
them and never looked back.
But I
wasn’t into college football at all growing up.
Then I met
my wife...
And it’s
never been the same since.
I love LSU
and dream of going to Tiger Stadium one day to lose what’s left of my already
damaged hearing as I cheer on Purple and Gold against one of their SEC West
rivals.
So needless
to say, this past Saturday’s game was salve to lack-of-sports ache and was made
even more wonderful by the comeback victory LSU pulled out by putting up 21
unanswered points over just under two quarters.
(I think my heart aged about ten years thanks to that game.)
But I
learned something fascinating out of that game:
LSU is the only FBS team in the NCAA with a winning record when behind
in the 4th Quarter: 22-21 under Les Miles.
I’d prefer
the Tigers post points over all four quarters, but if you’re behind and want to
win, better to have the coach in your corner that has a winning record when
behind late in the game.
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