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

Sometimes you get lucky.

It didn't happen, not this time. As we all know, appliances are engineered to fail at exactly one minute after midnight on the last day the warranty covers it. When my Sony TV went black recently, right at the end of the Dallas Cowboys game, I knew I was screwed with the warranty; it's just the way the world works.

Imagine my delight when, miracle of miracles, I discovered I had a whopping two weeks left on the coverage. Boy, did somebody screw up or what? At 9:01 the next morning I'm on the phone to the repair people. At the very least, I'm expecting a two week delay to order the part and an even longer wait to be scheduled for a house call. Keep in mind, the Big 12 game of the year between OSU and OU will be happening the next day, forcing me to watch on my emergency, minuscule, 17 incher. The conversation went like this:

Repair Guy: Sony huh? Went black on you? Probably lost the projection lamp.

Me: How long will it take to get the part?

Repair Guy: Oh we have those in stock.

Me: Really? Okay, how long before you can come out?

Repair Guy: Umm, let me look. How about today at 4?

Me. I think I love you.

Repair Guy: Sir?


The guy didn't show up at 4, he came at 2. Twenty minutes later I had big screen football.

There is a God.

The Day After

For weeks, I've anticipated the start of football season, practically counting the days until the opening kickoff. After yesterday, I'm thinking 90+ days until basketball starts. OU, my favorite college team for like forever, looked uh, how can we put this kindly, like Sand Springs High School on a bad day? Every year, I tell myself to pay no attention to the hype coming out of the coaches; that this is a great looking team; we have a couple potential Heisman candidates, and yes we'll be in the hunt for a National Championship!

Okay, great by what standard? Greater than a team that goes 4 for 12 ?
My grandson is a potential Heisman candidate and he's only 7.
National Championship? C'mon coach.

But I fell for it, like I always do. Yes, they did win. Barely and that's with Utah State missing their best running back and wide receiver. There's that. So why do I feel like the season's over?

Drive a man to drink.