It's Pronounced Canada: The 2009 International Bowl

Despite the fact that Macalester's main cheer ("Drink blood, smoke crack, worship Satan, go Mac!") was basically the primary reason I decided to apply there, I haven't exactly taken full advantage of the college sports scene. I've been to a couple of soccer games, which are always fun, an odd rugby game, and one lone football game, which we lost something like 45-10. I can't remember the exact score, but I'm almost certain that's no gross exaggeration. (For those not familiar with Macalester, we're not exactly known for our athletic dominance, which is probably the reason I've not been a dedicated fan.) In any case, today was my first taste of "real" college football. (Bowl games! They're big! Who knew?) I'm largely indifferent to the sport of football, but at this point I'm just so starved for entertainment from a Buffalo team, that I'll take whatever I can get. (See what you've driven me to, Sabres?! Football!) And while the outcome wasn't ideal, I definitely got the enjoyment I came for. 

In my opinion, the non-verbal noises that best summarize each quarter of the game are as follows:

1st - Ummmmmmmm...

2nd - WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

3rd - Uh-ooooooh...

4th - OooooowWOOooooooooooooooow

To be clear, while that looks like the typical Buffalo-team soul-crushing game arc, that's at least 15 minutes more WOO than I've been getting from the Sabres recently. I'll take that.

I was totally chill watching this game, and I think it had everything to do with my relationship (or lack thereof) to this sport. I'm hardly a football dummy. There's no way I could have grown up in my household and not siphoned off some amount of football knowledge, not with the parents I have. So, though it's not my particular cup of tea, I know what good football and bad football look like. (Or, at least, bad football. My parents are Bills fans, after all.)  Where the ignorance-is-bliss part comes in is with the fact that I have absolutely no ability to analyze football. For instance, I know that it's not good when you go from 2nd and 1 to 3rd and 18, and I know it's awful when you throw an interception in the end zone that gets run back more than 100 yards for a touchdown, but hell if I know how to fix it. So while the people around me are getting all worked up, throwing around words like "play calling" and "bad tackling" and "poor run coverage," all I really have to offer is, "They need to... play better." And then I get to sit back with my peanuts and beer, decidedly unworked-up, and enjoy the delightful fact that, while we have no offense to speak of, we're scoring almost all of our points off of hilarious blunders by the other team. It's a beautiful thing - especially after all the stress the Sabres have been putting me through lately - to remember that sports can still be fun, even when the team you're rooting for is losing. It's enough to make me never want to learn anything analytical about football, just in case I need this outlet again. Today I was completely free to cheer my lungs out when appropriate, boo when I wanted, and otherwise forget about what was going on. Who knew life as a bandwagon fan was so good?

And there was plenty to keep me entertained besides the football, too. As much as I love the fact that cheerleaders will never come near my favorite team, I was all in favor of them today, as they provided some fun moments. The UB squad was right in front of our seats for most of the game, holding four signs with "BU-FF-AL-O!" printed on them, which they held up in isolated succession, apparently to get the crowd to cheer along. I had way too much fun over-exaggerating the "FF" whenever it came up. For some reason, there was nothing funnier to me, in that moment, than trying to scream "FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!" in unison with the UB cheerleaders. My brother and I also had a fun time sabotaging all of UConn's cheers: "Give me a U!" "P!" "Give me a C!" "M!" "Give me an O!" "X!" etc. So, while I'm usually not too big on cheerleaders, today was a good day for us.

Probably the biggest laugh I had was during the Bull's intro video, which they played on the Jumbotron before they took the field. I don't know if they showed it on TV, but it contained the typical fast-cut highlights and dramatic close-ups of any sports intro video, interspersed - quite randomly, as far as I could tell - with footage from a construction site. Like, one minute there'd be a Bull hitting some other team's player, or glowering intensely into the camera, and then the next minute there'd be a steam roller or a bull dozer trundling by, with no explanation. UConn's video, on the other hand, while set to a rocking score (Rage Against the Machine's "Renegades of Funk," that song brings me back), seemed to show little more than the fact that the Huskies are really skilled at lacing up their cleats and pulling on their jerseys. I had absolutely no idea what to make of either video, but I took full advantage of the opportunity to giggle. 

By far the biggest chill came when the assembled players from the 1958 team came forward for the coin toss. It's a good thing I already knew the story behind it, since all the Buffalo fans were cheering so loudly that I couldn't even hear the announcer's explanation of the Tangerine Bowl that happened without us. I'll admit, even this stoic, unsentimental blogger's eyes got a little misty something in them. What a wonderful thing for the University and the city to be proud of, even if most of us are only hearing about it 50 years after the fact.  

Maybe my favorite part of the whole experience, though, was after the game, with all of the UB fans pouring out of the Rogers Centre and onto the Toronto streets, when a lone man in a Maple Leafs beanie called out the masses, "Anybody want hockey tickets for tonight?" I couldn't repress my grin. He wasn't harassed, as far as I saw, beyond a snarky, "Not for the Leafs!" but the general attitude made it clear that he would have more luck selling a tablespoon of cinnamon to a man dying of thirst than selling overpriced Senators @ Leafs tickets to this crowd of Buffalo fans. Maybe he was banking on someone wanting to buy them just to spit on them, tear them up and burn the pieces. Not outside the realm of possibility, I suppose. Anyway, as I took this all in, and as the thoughts I just wrote started to form in my head, something occurred to me. I felt different. I felt like a rejuvenated hockey fan. I felt like a fan ready to go to the Hockey Hall of Fame (more on that later), and then drive back to Buffalo and start the Sabres/Bruins game on TiFaux delay with something like - could it be? Hope? Optimism? - in her heart. 

So, I want to thank you, 2008 University at Buffalo Bulls. I know this probably wasn't the game you were hoping to have, and you're undoubtedly really disappointed in yourselves right now. But, even though you didn't get all the way there, you still accomplished far more than anyone expected you to. And in a 2008 that saw Buffalo's teams (Bandits notwithstanding) falling short of expectations, don't think that that went unnoticed. And today you helped a Buffalo fan remember, just a little bit, why she loves Buffalo sports in the first place. Call me self-centered, or whatever, but I think that's not nothing. It was fun cheering for you today.

Let's go, Buffalo!