The Purity of Sport

College football is back. It isn't even my favorite sport but I can't get enough of college athletics. There is something still right about it (even though I know that it has many of the same problems as professional sports) that makes me beam inside. For the first official weekend of college football I have watched quite a bit more than I have in years.

On Thursday night I caught part of the Oregon v. Boise State game. It was in Boise, on the blue turf, it was great to watch BSU take it right at the Ducks and stuff down their face. Boise is my favorite college team outside of the alma mater (UCLA). They played the best game of all time in beating Oklahoma (in the top three of least favorite teams even though my grandparents were enormous fans of the Boomer Sooner)in the Fiesta Bowl a few years back. The kids and the coach were willing to do whatever was necessary to win the game. The kids knew that most of them would never even sniff the NFL, that this would be their last game, in some cases, forever. It was fantastic to watch. You could feel the emotion of the players and the crowd, on both sides of the field, coming directly through the television. It was pure, clean and sublime.

I think that we lose a lot when the college kids become pros. There is something about the 'glitz and glamor' of the NBA and NFL (I can't really speak too much of MLB or NHL because they don't usually fill their rosters with college kids AND in college baseball and hockey are small potatoes) that rubs all of the love of the game right out of the players. You can tell it is all about business at that level. They play with world class intensity but they lack the little kid, they lack the love that got them to the point where they are able to play a kids game for millions upon millions of dollars.

Maybe its the fans that go to the games. The college game is dominated with students and alumni, fans ingrained with their teams, fans who still know that there might really be a 'next season'. I was just watching some of the Washington v. LSU game, and was amazed at the energy in Washington's Husky Stadium. I guess that is the first part that matters, the stadium name. It is not some companies name on the side of the product. UW was 0-12 last year. That is not a typo, 0-12. These kids spent from February through November (that is the real length of the regular season), working at practice, nursing injuries, watching film, breaking down opponents, and all for nought. Turn the page to a new year and they are literally rocking the stadium. The cameras that are connected to the stadium proper are jiggling on almost every play. The fans are completely decked out in purple, it is a cacophony, they are loud when LSU has the ball, hushed when UW is on offense UNTIL the ball is snapped and you can tell they think they are going to bust the next big run. You don't get any of that in today's pro stadiums.

It is that level of sport where there is not money (per se) on the line, but just the opportunity to win on a big stage. It does not exist for youth athletics or high school, it certainly does not exist in the pro ranks. You can just see something in the college ranks (and I mean any college) that makes you remember why people play sports and why people enjoy to watch them.

Just some updates--UCLA a winner (yeah) BYU beat OU by a point in the new Dallas Cowboys stadium (I bet it would have been different in Norman) and at the half LSU (11th ranked) leads UW 17-13 (I bet this will be a close one down to the final gun). I love these games.