Football Fancies

Over the last week or so I have been compiling in my head a number of comments to make about football.

First, I cannot really say I am surprised by the OSU-USC outcome. As much as I wanted the Buckeyes to do well, looking at their past performances, both this year and against the PAC 10 in general, the outcome did not look good. As it turned out, the outcome was downright ugly, and lead many OSU fans to seriously question the coach, Jim Tressel, which is not a very common around. I usually feel like its "in Tressel we trust". At least, however, it seems Tressel got the message as he changed his strategy significantly in the next game and we beat Troy easily, though perhaps not as gloriously as one could have hoped.

Second, the New England Patriots defense is killing my fantasy football team!! When is the last time that they allowed 38 points? Actually I looked it up. It was in 2005 at Indianapolis (thank you Wikipedia). I don't know when the last time they allowed it at home was! But in all reality, while I would have appreciated getting 10 or 15 points from them instead of the -8 I got (yes, they not only failed to earn me points, I was penalized for their issues), it would not have made a difference in the final outcome. I lost my fantasy game this week by 35 points. I would have one if New England has performed better, and if I had had the psychic ability to know that Roddy White was going to tear things up this week... but alas, he sat sadly on my bench watching my team lose. At least I won handily in my public league, though I value my private league much more. Its always more fun when you know the people you are competing against!

Third, I very much enjoyed Monday Night Football this week. If you are from Minnesota, you know that the Vikings/Packers border rivalry is intense. It was especially strong to me since I grew up in a border town going to a high school that drew from both states. Anyways, I really have always hated the Packers, but was surprised this year to discover that a lot of my animosity towards the Green and Gold left with Brett Favre, and became a hatred of him, or his current team, the Jets. I think it is because (1) he has embodied the Pack for my entire conscious memory, and (2) all of the drama he caused this summer was ridiculous. I also am a sucker for young, new quarterbacks with worlds of possibilities and uncertainty (AKA, Aaron Rodgers). Therefore, on Sunday night, I found myself cheering for Green Bay to beat Dallas!! While it helps that I really hate Dallas, it was very strange to find myself rooting for our biggest rival. I guess times have changed. Then, on Monday night, I was definitively rooting against the Jets, and was very pleased to see them get pwned and Favre perform poorly.

Fourth, I picked up my OSU football tickets this morning. I was expecting it to be a hassle. I always expect hassle when I deal with bureaucracy. I thought I had everything in order - fees paid, classes registered for, IDs and marriage license in hand, but you just never know. My fears were increased when several girls in front of me were turned away because their tuition was showing up as not paid even when they claimed they had paid it. However, my turn came and things went smoothly. She didn't even look at the marriage license. She didn't question that DH's ID has my maiden name spelled incorrectly on it (it should have had our married name). So, I have the tickets in hand and we will be going to the first of four games this weekend against Minnesota.

Go Bucks!


PS: slang definition: pwned - verb, meaning to own on someone severely, to beat someone heftily with a demeaning connotation. history- a common typo of owned in rapid video game communication that has come into common usage. Pronunciation: powned (rhyming with owned)