With the arrival of September, sports fanatics feel an unpleasant shiver in their spines, and it's not from the cool fall breeze. The end of fantasy baseball has appeared on the horizon. The yearly termination of this online pastime threatens participants with the prospect of increased workplace productivity, more time for family interaction and a complete lack of conversational topics.
Fear not.
College football cranks up in the coming week and any worries about sports withdrawal can be quickly dismissed. The beginning of the season is a time of hope and possibilities and few Richmonders are shy about sharing their expectations for their team.
Richmond is home to a diverse mix of proud football enthusiasts—Spiders, Panthers, Tribe, Trojans, 'Hoos and Hokies, among others—and the excitement is building to a fever pitch. Here are some reasons the sport gets us so pumped up.
Tailgating
Tailgating is the ultimate symbiotic relationship—everybody wins. Parents, alumni and other old farts hang out, chat with the kids, and get to pretend they're students for a day. Students get to pretend they're enjoying the conversation while they guzzle alcohol and stuff their pockets with chicken wings.
Upperclassmen know that timing is crucial at a tailgate. There is a window of about an hour when drinking starts to make people very sharing and the food and beverages haven't been finished off yet. Just be sure you're wearing the right team's colors before invading a plot.
Team Spirit
Game day is one of the few socially acceptable times to wear hideously colored clothing, face paint, wigs and whatever else you can get your hands on, in the name of supporting your team. Once inside the stadium, fans are encouraged to chant, sing and generally make fools of themselves, with the fervent belief that it is helping their team score points.
Television
If you can't make it to the game in person, there's still diversion in the form of TV. Those who were forced to spend summer weekends outdoors or watching TiVo-ed episodes of "Gossip Girl" can now roll a cooler up to the couch and spend entire days immobile.
The ability to flip between 17 different college football games is a great reason to upgrade to an astronomically expensive cable package. See how long you can use "I'm watching the game" as an excuse before someone realizes that games run back-to-back for the next eight hours.
Traditions
Virginia schools abound with football-related traditions. For example, as a U.Va. student, I enjoyed a custom known as "guys in ties, girls in pearls," in which students put on their nicest clothes, then inevitably stain them while falling down the steep, grassy student seating section. The Virginia Tech football program can't compete with U.Va. fans in the clothes department and instead engages in traditions such as doing the Hokey Pokey and beating the opposing team.
Cheerleaders
A college football team without cheerleaders is like a group of big, sweaty guys without attractive girls in short skirts to provide a visual counterpoint. In fact, that's exactly what it is. Let's not forget to thank male cheerleaders for doing their part by lifting the girls up so fans can get a better view.
Bragging Rights
Some flawed development in the human brain's logic allows sports fans to taunt the supporters of significantly better teams in the sincere belief that this time their own guys will undoubtedly pull off the win. The benefit of this mindset is that when, every now and then, an upset does occur, it is so, so sweet.
If you happen to be a supporter of the better team, you will spend the next several years being reminded of this unexpected loss, even as your team soundly beats its opponent in every successive meeting. Nevertheless, people put up with it, and that's the beauty of being a college football fan—it's not about logic, it's about love.
Brent Merritt is a native Richmonder and 2009 UVA grad. He recently returned from a year in Spain and is enjoying life on the Northside of the city. Follow him on twitter @brentmerritt.
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