MEMPHIS – Once again, it’s time.
Time to hand over my weekends for the next four months, with only the slimmest of hopes that somehow my team will survive and advance. Time we fans place all of our hopes in the shaky promise of a bunch of pre-adults and pray for the best. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, sure, but I’m buying in again.
Now, there are those who perhaps have a tighter grasp on rationality than most, people who do not like college football. I do not agree with those people. If you have a problem with college football, I have a problem with you. For me, college football is about the experience. It’s tribal. College football fans are my people, and we are about to reconvene and make some racket.
I love college football, specifically the University of Georgia Bulldogs. But I am willing to at least listen to your anti-college football argument, if for no other reason than to make you feel even more frustrated when I eventually dismiss it. I understand that perhaps you would rather not support a sport where the athletes are not paid. (Well, at least not *officially* paid.) Maybe you maintain that college football does not offer the same quality of football that the NFL puts forth, or that there is no real chance for most smaller college teams to compete for a title when pitted against Power 5 teams.
Photo Credit: David John Griffin/Icon Sportswire
And I’m not saying any of those reasons are not valid. You like what you like, and no words or thoughts from me will change that. I mean, I’m not a huge fan of college basketball, because for the most part I’d rather watch the NBA, where the very best basketball players in the world have been filtered into the best basketball experience possible. You can argue me until you’re Tarheel blue in the face, but it won’t change the way I feel about it.
Which is why I’ve mostly learned to listen and then just walk away. With college football, I’m not showing up hoping for the highest quality; I’m there for the experience. I want to arrive at the stadium hours before the game, sit around and spend time with some friends and maybe get something to eat (and, uh, drink), then head into the stadium and yell and cheer and exhaust myself. And then, head home at the end of the night, satisfied with my return on the emotional investment of my day.
I want a marching band blaring “The Hey Song.” I want to flip on ESPN2 at 11:00 p.m. on a random weeknight and find a game with two teams I know nothing about and, within five minutes, care deeply and passionately about the outcome. I want to drink a Coca-Cola that’s a little watered down because the heat of the day has melted a few of the ice cubes as my cup zig-zagged its way through the stands to my bleacher seat.
I love that college football is the place where the most football fun ideas usually have space to fertilize and flourish, from triple-option offenses to the Air Raid. Coaches like Chip Kelly and Steve Spurrier were considered geniuses in college, but when they went to the NFL their team-building skills didn’t translate. Tim Tebow is one of the greatest college quarterbacks to ever play – he won two national titles and a Heisman Trophy – but in the NFL he was completely adrift.
Point being, pro football is like a different sport altogether. And if you like that sport more than college football, good for you! Just don’t try and compare the two, thanks.
A few weeks ago, I was in a hotel room in New York City with a night off from work, and I realized that two of my favorite sports teams, the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Falcons, would each be playing games on national television on the same night. As I flipped the TV toward the NFL and MLB Networks, I came across ESPNU, which not only apparently still exists but, on this night, was showing a replay of the UGA/Alabama college football national championship game.
Photo Credit: David John Griffin/Icon Sportswire
I wrote about the game at the time, and after watching it that night, I hadn’t watched so much as a frame of highlights since. I did my very best to effectively banish it from my mind grapes (shouts to Tracy Jordan) going forward. But there that night, alone in my hotel room, I decided to stop surfing and sit back and re-watch the night my dreams almost came true.
Unfortunately, things ended the same way this time around, with Alabama inserting a freshman quarterback in the second half who completed a bomb in overtime to win the game and the title for the Tide. It provided only a small amount of comfort to know that seven months later, Bama coach Nick Saban still has no clear plan regarding what to do with the two talented quarterbacks on his roster. I just suspect that, somehow, things will probably work out in whatever way is best for Alabama football – as all things seem to do.
And so as the summer drifts towards fall, it’s time once against to crank up the whole college football hype machine. Maybe you don’t root for a Power 5 school, but on any given Saturday (or Thursday or Friday or Tuesday) your team has as good a chance as any to come away with a victory. You don’t have to like it; that’s fine.
College football doesn’t need you.
But I need college football. Welcome back, my friend.
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Memphis Grizzlies. All opinions expressed by Lang Whitaker are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Memphis Grizzlies or its Basketball Operations staff, owners, parent companies, partners or sponsors. His sources are not known to the Memphis Grizzlies and he has no special access to information beyond the access and privileges that go along with being an NBA accredited member of the media.