Football, anyone?

I am not much of a sports fan, as much as anyone knows. Most of my friends and family know that I like to watch basketball on TV. Not religiously, but enough so that if it is on I will change the channel to see it- and I don't have a favorite, or even preferred team. Occasionally I will watch hockey, when it counts. When the Red Wings (our local team) is playing for keeps, I will watch. One time we even went to one of the sports bar type restaurants specifically to WATCH the Red Wings. Once. A long time ago. But if I am a casual sports enthusiast, my husband is a sports holdout. There is nothing about televised sports he tolerates well. For a while he even banned me from watching basketball (there's a long story there, involving a very bad back injury and a penchant for screaming at the TV while jumping around wildly, so he was well within his rights - but I cannot help but think he was glad to turn of the TV just because sports were on). It seems that we are an oddity among our peers and neighbors. Saturday afternoons in the fall see college flags sprouting out of houses like crocuses in the spring. Co workers have fantasy football and basketball teams and spend time breaking down the weekend matches.

Around here, there a few rival teams that you are supposed to pick from and root for. The first rivalry is University of Michigan versus Michigan State. My mom went to Michigan, and just to be contrary, every time those two teams were matched up I would bet against U of M for a week of no bed making or extra chores. I grew up in a time of Michigan's history when they NEVER lost. It sucked. But today, it seems, I should have bet something, because U of M is having a Very Bad Streak. Believe me, it crossed my mind. But I have never had any real loyalty there. The other strong rivalry, and maybe even bigger, is U of M and Ohio State. I have a very close friend that is a die hard OSU fan - her husband WENT to Ohio State and she must own every piece of clothing available to show your fealty. They both regularly attend OSU games, even now that they have 2 kids. This is big, folks. So last year, on the very day they were playing U of M I had to go to her house in a U of M sweatshirt. She almost didn't let me in. But, to hedge my bets, I had an OSU t-shirt on underneath. It works for me. But now something has changed. What? I don't know.

I have had coworkers all bent out of shape over the sports alignment before and I have ignored it. But it seems that this year is a little different. I think I am almost liking Ohio State. Why? Well, they seem to play a pretty good game. Their fans seem incredibly loyal. I like their colors and their songs. They have fun chants. It might be that last one. It's certainly NOT their mascot, Brutus. Why are they Buckeyes? Well, it IS about Ohio, where I guess they have a lot of those. But their little buckeye leaf reminds my of holly and Christmas time, and their oversized, anthropomorphized Aesculus species nut is a little worrisome. OK, a lot worrisome. And he dances. That is weird. But I digress. My coworker - the physics teacher across the hall - dissed Ohio State. That made me feel all protective of this team, for reasons unknown to me. So now I have aligned myself for the price of a bottle of Pepsi (which we both love more than Coke) with OSU. There. I did it. So I am watching the Ohio State vs. Penn State game right now (turns out Penn state is ranked #3 and OSU #10, so I am not sure what I have done here) and I have no idea why. I am struck by the overwhelming amount of RED in the crowd - Penn state seems under represented here. They keep up their chanting of O-H-I-O (I like that) and it is like a constant roar. Sounds like fun out there in Buckeye country. Strangely enough, I am a feeling a little bit like I should be wearing another color. I mean, looking at my green sweater you would have thought I was rooting for MSU today (only passively, of course), and at least I'm not wearing blue, which is Penn State's color. But I do feel like I'm missing out on some fraternal organization by not wearing red during this game. I mean, they DO look like they are having a lot of fun wearing red. It can't be the Nut dancing around because that is still weird. Very weird.