27 Days Until Kickoff

Hey y'all!
Well, there's a giant flashing billboard on my way to work counting down the days. Not until back to school or Christmas, but rather the start of a special brand of insanity known as football season in Oklahoma. I've lived in Texas, where they're pretty damn football crazy, & lived in Seattle where there is a pretty passionate college rivalry.... But, neither one even comes close to this. People in Washington may plant their flowerbeds in Husky or Cougar colors, but here rival fans have been known to break each other's windshields out.

Things have been made even more interesting this year by the Sooners' 3-way race for starting Quarterback, & the recent NCAA sanction ordering them to "erase" all their wins for the 2005 season (for you non-fans, it's hard to describe how painful this is for a football program... i'd compare it to having your entire junior year of college erased, & being told you have to repeat it). Even though it's the hottest time of year w/every day pushing the triple digits, people have already started the Friday night tailgate parties. The evening news spends more time talking about football than Iraq, next year's presidential race, terrorrism and world events combined... And the season hasn't even started yet.

It's funny to see otherwise normal people dressed from head to toe in team colors and face paint for game days. Last year I tried to joke w/an older couple about the fact that they were dressed like a couple of Tony-the-Tigers, & was told very sharpy that OSU is "God's School", & the only institutions of higher learning in Oklahoma are OSU and Sunday School. Ouch. The only thing OU and OSU seem to agree on is how much they hate TEXAS. The annual Cottonbowl or "Red River Shootout" between OU and the UT Longhorns is such a long-standing tradition that it even has a page on Wikipedia. Tickets can be harder to get & more expensive than the Superbowl. The yearly Bedlam game played every Thanksgiving between OU and OSU IS the Oklahoma Superbowl.

And speaking of the Superbowl, there is a Baptist church I drive by on the way to work. Usually they have a bible verse or sermon info on the billboard, but back in January during the week before the Superbowl they replaced it with this instead:

Sunday Service 10-11
Superbowl Party 11 - ????

Hmm, maybe instead of the Bible Belt they should call it the Football Belt. Even funnier, the following Monday (after the Bears lost to the Colts), there was another quote from legendary Bears coach Mike Ditka:

Success isn't permanent;
failure isn't fatal.

Luckily, neither is football season! Cheers,

Layla :)