The NFL finished its preseason - and no one knows why they even held a preseason in the first place (unless it had something to do with money) - and keeps score and counts the games this coming weekend.
College football came out of the corner swinging last Thursday - literally if you check the video below - with Oregon visiting Boise State and losing on BSU's smurf-blue football field that makes TV screens beg for mercy. By now everyone in the world that watches ESPN highlights has seen the sucker punch thrown by a frustrated Oregon player at the end of the game as players were exiting the field. Not quite the punch CFB wanted thrown on a weekend dedicated, ironically, to sportsmanship. (Note: Now this is real irony, not just the bad luck and tragedy masqueraded as irony by Alanis Morissette in her song Isn't It Ironic?). But I digress. And despite a black eye administered to sportsmanship, there was plenty of on field highlights for football junkies who have been suffering withdrawal pains for the past eight months.
My Buckeyes played a less than impressive game against the Naval Academy - putting in the second string quarterback in the second quarter is not a recipe for maintaining momentum in what looked like an emerging blowout - but before the game, in the spirit of sportsmanship, the two teams ran onto the field together. This was a first ever happening in storied Ohio Stadium. All week leading up to the game head coach Senator Tressel had let it be known that he did not want servicemen being booed - a friendly tradition in Ohio and a couple hundred other venues each Saturday afternoon of CFB season - and, in fact, wanted Navy's players to be given a standing ovation. Apparently he didn't have total faith in his fan base so he set things up to insure the standing O. I don't know. We've booed the home team before, too.
Based on one week of results, the sports guru pundits are pretty sure who is really good and who is really bad already. They'll be wrong a fair amount of the time and by season's end express indignation that the season didn't unfold as they pronounced it would. (Note: Only a few of the pundits predict any more. Most now pronounce. Better ratings.)
Not surprising, Lou Holtz has already declared Notre Dame as national champions. The term "SEC speed" was used no less than 300 times on ESPN. And then a thousand more times once the games started. Oklahoma got upset by BYU and lost their Heisman winner QB, Sam Bradford, for an indefinite stretch of games. Michigan looked like the Wolverines again - maybe they've been practicing extra - and speaking of which, I am all for eschewing the tie and deciding games in overtime, but it doesn't mean I can't still hope and pray that when Michigan and Notre Dame play next week, "they" - maybe we do need the pundits on occasion - deem both teams losers after a 0-0 final score highlighted by 20 fumbles.
So who is going to win the national championship? And who do I think is going to be really good and bad this year? Rather than separate the sheep and the goats and impute or impinge character on the basis of winning, as a spectator, I'll hide behind the words of Teddy Roosevelt:
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion, spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never tasted victory or defeat.
On that note, all I can say is "Go Bucks. Beat USC!"
