My Bowls Runneth Over

What’s with all the football bowl games these days? According to an ESPN website, I counted 35 post season games starting on December 18th and ending January 9th. THIRTY-FIVE!

So, how many of you watched the Beef O’ Brady Bowl featuring the powerhouse teams of Marshall and Florida International? Just in case you missed it, let the record show that Marshall won 20-10. How about the Military Bowl; Toledo 42, Air Force 41? A thriller to be sure, but only if you’re wearing a blue uniform or were born in Ohio.

Folks, in my day, we had just four bowls. Hard to believe but those were the days, so long ago, before ESPN if you can imagine that. It started out with the Bluebonnet Bowl and if I remember right, it was traditionally played on New Year’s Eve The Bluebonnet usually featured a team from Texas such as Houston, Texas A&M, or Texas Tech. often squaring off against a Big Eight opponent. Yes kids, it’s hard to imagine but the Big Twelve was formerly know as the Big Eight. Except now it's down to ten teams...or is it nine? It's hard to keep up anymore.

 The thing that made the Bluebonnet Bowl so attractive was not only the familiarity with the teams, but you could start your New Year’s Eve party early, a warm up if you will. Lounge around the TV and cheer for a couple hours, maybe sip a few beers before getting into the hard stuff when at the stroke of midnight, you’ve forgotten the game and transformed into a stumbling, half-blind idiot, yelling things like “Texas Sucks” and getting high fives all around.

Back then, New Year’s day was as God intended it to be; one glorious day of football with the Cotton Bowl, the Rose Bowl, followed by the grand finale of them all, the Orange Bowl in beautiful Miami, Florida with the always entering and spectacular halftime show. The Orange Bowl halftime was the only part of the day when you saw the lady of the house.  Aren’t those marching bands wonderful? Football, all day long, back to back games, all while nursing a bruising hangover and wondering if you would ever smile again.

And then it was over, done with, a clean break, cold turkey. None of this spread it out for three weeks nonsense that you see today. Now, it’s all about money. More games, more moola. It’s un-American I tell you, un-American. We should boycott New Orleans, turn the TV's off, refuse to watch LSU-Alabama for the NCAA National Championship. Uh oh, there I go, getting stupid again. Anybody got an aspirin?

“If a man watches three football games in a row, he should be declared legally dead.”
Erma Bombeck