Cal Football: Love It Or Leave It
BY Steven Dunst
Thursday, September 22, 2005
All of us have a love some place deep in our hearts. For some of us it may be the sweet smell of dandelions on a warm spring day, others may have a soft spot for double cheeseburgers and chili fries, and yes, a lot of people may love sex.
But not me. You can have your sex, and I'll take Cal football on Saturday, an experience unlike any other. The only qualm I have with football game days is that they only come five or six times a year and probably won't be nearly exciting three years from now when I'm an alum sitting and watching the game in a Polo shirt while drinking a mocha.
But here's why I love game days:
I love having an excuse to be drunk at 10 a.m. and three times in one day.
I love being woken up at 8 a.m. by someone I probably haven't even met banging on my door as I lie in bed with a splitting headache, feeling like I hadn't slept in 72 hours but smiling inside because I know there's some Cal football to be played today.
I love standing in the ridiculous heat in the student section-dizzy and exhausted-and jumping up after a Marshawn touchdown only to be punched in the gut by a guy on my left who smells like he just took a bath in the Dead Marshes and thinks he's my best friend, but probably doesn't even know how many yards it takes to get a first down.
I love telling the alumni to make some noise even though they almost never do.
I love inexplicably hearing the blonde girl sitting next to me yell "yay JJ" after Aaron Rodgers throws a touchdown to Geoff MacArthur.
I hate USC.
I love knowing that if there weren't cops separating us from the USC fans last year at the Coliseum, somebody would have gotten his jaw broken in a fight ... most likely me.
I love getting congratulatory calls from my friends on the East Coast after a Cal win and gloating, as if I contributed to the win in any way whatsoever.
I love looking at the college football television schedule and seeing four "must-see" games on in a row, knowing that any notion that I will get any work done was just thrown out the window.
I love watching Cal fall behind by seven in the second quarter to Oregon and knowing that there's no way in hell we're about to lose.
I love turning on the TV and seeing USC up by only three to a junior varsity team like Appalachian State in the first quarter and convincing myself that the damned Trojans are about to be upset.
I hate USC.
I love seeing an innocent, bewildered student who has never been to a football game in her life standing with a red shirt in a sea of blue and being screamed at mercilessly to "Take off that red shirt," as if the shirt is personally insulting the mothers of each of the thousands of fans around her.
I loved getting up at 6 a.m. for a ticket to the USC game last year, finally getting my prized stub at 10 and feeling like I just won the lottery even though the tickets are in the end zone and I just missed a mandatory two-hour history discussion section, likely dropping my grade.
And yes, I hate USC.
Steven Dunst
found at Daily
Californian, CA -
Sep 22, 2005
(c) 2003 The Daily Californian
Berkeley, CA
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