I am a Yankees fan, a Raiders fan, and a Rutgers fan. Those are the three teams that mean something to me.
During the baseball season, I will check out the scores of a Yankee game on the computer and I am almost always aware of where they stand in terms of injuries and supporting staff. I don't get emotionally invested, but I really enjoy rooting for them and against the Boston Red Sox. It's inherent to me.
During the football season, I am so used to the Raiders sucking that I don't get surprised or hurt when they lose. I have recently seen the heartbreak that is Giants' fans watching their team hit the shitter in what should have been a very promising year... but... I don't get emotionally involved... except when I was at a Raiders game in Oakland this year.
During the college football season, I was so used to Rutgers just absolutely sucking rotten eggs and being the joke of the NCAA football world that I just shake my head every time I watched one of their games.
This year was different. There was excitement and glory and energy. I loved going to the games for this excitement and fun. I have never had this much fun at anythign Rutgers related since Rutgers beat a top ranked Temple at the RAC in a basketball game in the mid 90s. It has been an emotional roller coaster ride.
This year... I got emotionally invested.
I waited a couple of days to write this but Saturday night was pretty rough on me. It was like being dumped by a girl I really loved (don't think about it Tangent Woman!). So many different emotions all at once... and all involved sadness in one way or another.
Now... after an amazing season and the most awesome game of the program's experience against Louisville, they are relegated to the Texas Bowl. Plane tickets are currently over $400 a person and it doesn't look like something I want to go to right now.
We shall see in the upcoming week what we shall do... but I can tell you one thing...
I was proud of Rutgers on Saturday night. They were supposed to get creamed. They were supposed to be embarrassed. They played hard and literally lost by inches.
Congrats muh Rutgers Scarlet Knights... Congrats and good luck in 4 weeks!
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5 comments:
Go. The money won't matter 10 years from now. The memories will.
I feel your pain. Not being a huge college football fan in the past, I got totally sucked in this season. The other night was heartwrenching, but to sound like a teacher for a moment, "they can be proud they tried their best." Ok, I know that doesn't make it any better. :)
-Leslie
Brian, you should totally go. It upset me to read that you might skip just because we didn't win the conference. Think of how far we've come in two years!
- From what my freinds who went last year to the Insight Bowl, it was a memory-of-a-lifetime experience, and a lot of that had to do with the events that Rutgers set up the day before and day of the game. No reason why they won't come through again this year.
- Schiano is staying! This is only the beginning!
- It's not your fault that the Big East's bowl games suck, but it is up to us as fans to help change that - nothing we can do this year about the fact that as the #3 team in the big east and #17 in the country, we get the privilege of going to Big 12 country to play the #8 Big 12 team. It's a joke and everyone knows it. But what would be worse is if we don't go, since having a boatload of scarlet fannies in the seats will be a big part of effecting change. Things could improve as the Big East has shown this year that it isn't the substandard conference everyyone thought it would be after Miami/Va Tech/BC left. But for now, the best thing we as fans can do is show our support. In order to get those better bowl games for our #3-#5 schoools, we need to show that we travel well.
- It sounds like you would have gone to Miami - This is a less expensive trip than than Miami would have been. Tickets are dirt cheap, you're in the stadium for the price of your upper deck Rutgers Stadium seat, and you can double that price for club level - suh-weet! Really good hotel deals off of the Texas Bowl website. You can fly outta Philly for about $300.
Sorry guys... I didn't mean to make it seem as though money was the issue.
I really want to go, but I am not sure I can... in the figurative sense...
Nah, didn't think $ was an issue, thought that "disappointment" was an issue so I suggested thinking about the fact that it'd be a cheaper trip than Miami. Can't skip a bowl game because of disappointment that it isn't a "better" bowl because if everyone did that, there would be no better bowls, because all the bowls take traveling history into account when deciding which teams they want.
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