Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Small-school football prostitutes

For many years small-college football teams have been like prostitutes--letting themselves get beaten up by powerhouse teams from the big schools, all for money. This usually happens at the beginning of the football season, with the games played at the homes of the big schools. The big schools get to warm up (and send in the scrubs, to give them a chance to play, after the first teams have run up a big score); the small schools, as compensation for their beatings, get to take home handsome revenues from the game, their share of the revenues from ticket sales and TV contracts. These revenues often go a long way toward funding all sports programs--football, basketball, baseball, and the minor sports (for male and female students)--for the small schools. They go home bloody but richer.

Some outcomes of these contests on September 1st this year were: Louisiana State 45, Mississippi State 0; Boise State 56, Weber State 7; Cincinnati 59, Southeast Missouri State 3; Penn State 59, Florida International 0; Louisville 73, Murray State 10; Florida 49, Western Kentucky 3; Oklahoma 79, North Texas 10; and Alabama 52, Western Carolina 6.

But once in a blue moon the prostitutes beat up their johns. This happened on September 1st this year when little Appalachian State University, from its mountain stronghold in tiny Boone, North Carolina, went to Ann Arbor, Michigan to take on mighty Michigan, rated number 5 in the nation last year. (Michigan is in the I-A division of the college teams--the major schools--while Appalachian is in the I-AA division--the smaller schools.) As usual, Michigan was supposed to thrash little Appalachian and send them home bruised and bloody.

BUT APPALACHIAN HADN'T LEARNED ITS ROLE: IT RAN AWAY WITH A 34-32 VICTORY. The way it drove 69 yards with 1 minute, 11 seconds left in the game (and no more time-outs to use) to get into position to score a field goal, and then block an attempted field goal by Michigan in the closing seconds, made it one of the most exciting games in football history. Sports writers all over the country have let the prose fly in describing the game as the greatest upset in football history--which is certainly a reasonable claim. I was drinking a margarita while watching other football games on TV when I suddenly saw Appalachian State 34, Michigan 32 stream across the screen along with other scores. I couldn't believe it; I thought the tequila in that drink must have been stronger than I realized. Then it came across again with a breathless announcer saying it had really happened.

Although I didn't watch the game because it wasn't televised in my part of the country, I am sure, had I watched it in progress, I would have thought it would have been the most exciting football game I had ever watched. (I would have been pulling strongly for Appalachian.) I have learned over the years never to say "I will never see another game this exciting!" I said that after the Baltimore Colts 23-17 victory over the New York Giants in the National Football League championship game in December 1958 (the first time in professional football that there was a sudden-death overtime to break a tie). That game has been frequently referred to as "the greatest game of football ever played." Even though I was a young man in excellent health at the time, in the closing two minutes of the game, with the Colts behind 17-20, I thought I was going to have a heart attack, an emotional breakdown, or both if the Colts couldn't score to win. They did, and I was drained of energy for several minutes after it was over. I went through much the same excitement when North Carolina State (for whom I was heavily rooting) came within a hair of winning in the closing seconds of their game with Ohio State in September 2003. NC State was behind 38-44 with the ball first and goal on about the Ohio State two-yard line, with enough time to score, but couldn't get the ball across. Again, as in 1958, when the game ended I was limp from yelling and screaming, and said that this game was about as exciting as the Colts-Giants one. Of course, the team I was rooting for didn't win in 2003; also, it was not a championship game, as the 1958 one was, but it was as exciting. Now, I am saying that, had I been able to watch the Appalachian-Michigan game in progress, I would probably have said that it was the most exciting one I had ever seen.

So, I repeat: never say never.

This year, 2007, has seen not only the Appalachian State upset of Michigan, but also the Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles by 30-3 in August--the first time in 110 years that a major league baseball team has scored as many as 30 runs in a game.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

Name:
Location: United States

Mycroft Watson is the nom de plume of a man who has seen many winters. He is moderate to an extreme. When he comes to a fork in the road, he always takes it. His favorite philosopher is Yogi Berra. He has come out of the closet and identified himself. Anyone interested can get his real name, biography, and e-mail address by going to "Google Search" and keying in "User:Marshall H. Pinnix" (case sensitive).

Powered by Blogger

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
Free Top Ten Search Engine Submission!
  • Excite
  • What-U-Seek
  • Webcrawler
  • NetFind
  • Lycos
  • Infoseek
  • AltaVista
  • HotBot
  • Goto
  • Northern Light
Site Title
URL
Name
Email
Free Advertising
 Blog Top Sites a href="http://www.blogtopsites.com/"> Blog Top Sites