Stupid American Sports

2002-10-05 || 11:26 p.m.

Well, I went to my first football game today. Yeah, I'm 19. And it's my first. I'm not a sports guy, in case you couldn't tell. But fun, I did have. My thoughts:

I was surprised that I got as into it as I did. I was yelling, doing the cheers, etc. It surprised me. Because I've long railed against the truly stupid amounts of money spent on this sport, especially at this university, and that opinion still stands. I just have a better understanding of it now. However, it is frustrating to not be able to get classes I need (as in the "gateway to your major classes that if you don't take, you'll be set back a semester" classes) because my department is forced to cut its budget by 30 freaking percent despite the largest incoming freshman class ever, yet see these big, beautiful, redundant sports arenas all over campus. Don't get me started on the athlete's preferential treatment, either. I mean, yeah, they do work hard for their sport, and those who are here on scholarship are working for it, but I can't pretend it doesn't bother me. Ideally (and I know that just like in physics, nothing is ever really ideal), all the sports departments would be like, oh, swimming, or something. Explanation: There are students here earning their way through college on a sports scholarship, but the university isn't on bended knee to keep THAT division of athletics happy. Here in Austin, football is king, and everyone bends over backwards to accommodate it. But everyone has a much more well-balanced attitude about swimming. The priorities seem to need a bit of re-evaluating.

I now understand why you see those guys who never wear shirts at games. Reason: They don't want the T-shirt tan that I got. Or rather, the T-shirt burn. Ow! Good grief, remember to bring some sunblock. After the game, I smelled something odd. I took a shower. The smell was still there. I examined it more carefully. IT WAS THE SMELL OF COOKED FLESH. Who knew?

I have a lot of respect for the marching band folk. They wear those uniforms in scorching heat (today was actually pretty nice, but I had a T-shirt and khaki cargo pants.) and do all those formations in perfect step, AND play the instrument. That's tough. Let's have it for the Longhorn Band, ladies and gemtlemen. They deserve it.

Football was obviously not designed by engineers. Engineers prize efficiency. And each quarter of a football game is 15 minutes, right? That's an hour. Plus half-time makes an hour and a half tops. Why then were we there for four hours? Also, the players take such hits when trying to intercept each other. There's great potential for someone to get hurt, and people often do. Engineers also prize safety. Actually, it's so easy to get injured, I'm amazed that it's legal to maintain professional/college level teams like this. Well, not really. I think I'm just tired.

No wonder they say these arenas pay for themselves. I know they don't let you take stuff into the stadium, so I gave my water bottle to a friend with a purse. They searched her, and made her throw it out. A 20 oz bottle of Dasani was $2.50. But no. Being the sucker that I am for all things vanilla, I had to get a same-sized bottle of Vanilla Coke. $3.25. How did I talk myself into that one?