Wow! I'm having bad luck! The Rangers forgot to show up for the World Series last week and today the Utes don't show up against TCU!
Yeah I said it, I bleed red! But mostly because of my hemoglobin. Really I'm not that big into the Utah-BYU rivalry. I grew up as a BYU fan, my parents both graduated there so we had season tickets to Cougar games, and that's where I learned the game of football. Ah, football, I find I miss playing very much. I played for 6 years before I quit to play baseball full time. Sometimes I still regret that decision, as much as I love baseball, I miss the fun, and for some reason I was always more of a leader on the football field than on the baseball field. In fact my last 4 seasons I was captain of the defense, probably because I was so intense, but it was great because I got to call the formations. I think what ended my football career was getting a concussion the last game of my 6th season and not having another game scheduled to get that out of my system. In the end I think I made the right decision for my body though, my first season I was nine years old, I was already 5'6" and 120 lbs. I was a behemoth, but as I matured I grew into more of a baseball players physique, and by high school at 6'3" 180lbs. I wasn't really big enough to keep playing football, especially defense. Speaking of defense, I've always wondered if it says something about my personality that I've always loved and been most successful at the defensive aspects of sports, Pitcher in baseball, linebacker in football, even middle blocker in volleyball. Hmm...
Anyway, back to the rivalry. After a while we stopped going to BYU functions and began supporting the Utes. Years later I would find out that, while my parents don't regret their time in Provo, they didn't want any of their children to attend, something about the fact that conformity is stressed so much on campus that the school simply produces clones, not individuals, which I can see some times. So really I've spent time rooting on both teams, however recently I've been pushed deeper into Utah territory, mostly by BYU fans. I don't think it's a secret to anyone in Utah how tense this rivalry is, and I know for many, mostly my BYU fanatic friends, rooting for both teams doesn't fly, if at any time you root for the Utes, you're just as bad as the rest of them. To be completely honest I consider myself a Ute fan simply because it's become so fun to get my BYU fan friends so riled up, not really because I want the Utes to always win.
So am I really disappointed that the Utes lost today? Am I bothered that the Rangers didn't go all the way? No, what disappoints me is the fashion they lost in. 47-7? That game was boring before the end of the 2nd Qtr. Then the Rangers losing in 5 games was pitiful, I miss the days of the old series where they'd be pushed to 7 games. Overall I wouldn't say I have a team, usually there are just players I really like, although I do want to see one team win, the competition and my entertainment is what's more important to me. Tonight I wondered if this shows I lack true passion, or the inability to become passionate, in my life.
Then I remembered I'm still missing about half of each eyebrow, a sacrifice for my Halloween costume.
4 comments:
Funny, I always feel like the Ute fans are rather more intense...Utah Y fans might care, but I feel like much of the population that grew up somewhere else just really doesn't bother themselves about it that much.
My thought, though.
hahaha good post, made me laugh for sure!
As for the BYU - Utah thing... Well good for you... i'm glad you have found peace being a fence sitter. As for me, I'll stick with my BYU :]
I don't mean to point fingers, all I know is that though I have rooted for BYU on and off throughout the season(and by "on and off" I mean I only rooted against them when they played TCU and Air Force, and that was mostly based on my hatred of the opinion poll ranking system) my Facebook wall was still flooded with comments from EVERY SINGLE ONE of my BYU friends about Utah's loss Saturday. Seriously, you'd think BYU had just won a championship.
I also agree, I think that people outside of Utah are mostly unaware of how ugly the rivalry is here. My brother-in-law brought up a good point tonight though. The players openly getting involved in the media about it {ahem}Max Hall, Austin Collie{ahem} has mad it the way it is. It gives one side extra weapons to attack with, and the other side a reason to defend more aggressively.
I wouldn't call myself a fence-sitter though, come Nov. 27th I bleed Red figuratively as well, I just don't see the point of rooting against a rival. Doesn't anyone else miss the BYU-Utah game being a conference championship as well? Like last year when BYU fans rooted against Utah in the TCU game, and in the end, had Utah defeated the Horned Frogs BYU would have tied for Conference champions, instead they were first losers...
I'm not totally AGAINST the U.(I'll hopefully be bleeding red at some point for Med. School so I guess I can't hate them because of what they'll give me!) It's more if there's a BYU - UTAH game that I'm definitely for the Y. Now, if it were the U and and say Oklahoma, I would cheer for the U.
I guess, I'm a BYU fan, until they don't play, then I'll cheer for the Utes. I'll cheer for them if there's no one else.
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