Diary of a Cage Fighter (Journalist) In Training

Well, it’s mid-August, and in my world that means that football season is upon us. Specifically, college football. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Cleveland Browns and the NFL. Fantasy football, Sunday afternoons, Monday Night Football, they’re all great. But ever since the Browns were absent from the league for awhile, I’ve been more enamored with my favorite college team: The Ohio State Buckeyes. When the Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens, I was devastated. I was a young boy of ten who had just began to follow professional football and attended my first Browns game. I had autographs from many of the players that were now suiting up for a rival team while my team no longer existed. I needed an outlet for my passion for the sport. Now, I’m sure cynics out there will jump at the opportunity to mention the scandals surrounding the university and the fact that many of its football players are essentially semi-pro athletes with a questionable workload. To them, I say, have you ever tried to manage the homework assigned from underwater basket weaving, ballroom dancing, and bowling all in the same semester? I am willing to overlook all of the flaws with the current system, including the BCS, and just enjoy the qualities that allowed college football to capture my heart while I was on the rebound. There’s the tradition. Every Ohio State home game, the band spells out Ohio in script and a lucky sousaphone player has the honor of dotting the “i”. That’s gotta be about the only conceivable reason someone would aspire to play the sousaphone. There’s the upsets. Every week, a top 25 team could be upset and it only takes one loss some years to ruin the dream of a national title. And of course, every November there is the Ohio State/Michigan game. If you are a fan of either team involved in this rivalry, you know when it is long in advance. People plan weddings around it, sign off from work to see it and talk about it until it takes place the next year. It has determined the Big Ten champion, Rose Bowl representative, and even helped shape the national title landscape over the years. I don’t know why exactly, but I get goose bumps during the minutes before the kickoff for certain Ohio State games. I imagine that this feeling is something like what having pride in your college must be like. So if you want to make plans with me on a Saturday during football season, be sure that I really like you, because otherwise I can’t make any guarantees. If you’re a girl, your odds increase significantly.

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