There are times in the life of the average sports fan when he has to question if it’s really worth the time and effort laid forth. The Average Joe is anything but average in his devotion to his teams, though, making those kinds of questions foreign. I am, however, a glutton for punishment. A mix of geography and upbringing doomed me to a life of rooting for Ole Miss and the New Orleans Saints. Anyone familiar with those teams knows that’s akin to signing up for semiannual kicks in the crotch.
The latest blow was delivered Saturday in Oxford, Miss., where I watched Ole Miss’s offense sleepwalk through a 20-13 defeat at the hands of Memphis. This was an unacceptable result for a variety of reasons. Those of you who read my column last week were treated to instant validation of my claims to be anything but a savvy bettor.
Even though all the prognosticators and handicapping experts, including Alatex Sports’ Brent Crow, picked Memphis, I allowed the fog of emotion to cloud my judgment. I’m now a little lighter in the pocketbook and a little more confused about how I could have been so wrong about my team. Part of it is the belief ingrained in every fan that this year things will be better. This is true of fans of almost all teams (see Red Sox and Cubs fans) despite sometimes overwhelming evidence to the contrary. I knew full well that the Rebels would be without the services of Eli Manning, only the most effective quarterback to ever play in Oxford. Yet I was not alone in deluding myself that our new, more mobile quarterback would be able to make up for the disparity in talent between him and Manning with his superior running skills. Boy, was I wrong. So I’m instituting a new rule for myself. No betting on Ole Miss.
I know a guy who says that his key to winning betting is to know your team through and through. There are very few people not directly associated with the Rebel athletic program who know more about the team than I, but my sincere longing to see them win makes it far too easy for me to believe that they will. Case in point: Memphis beat Ole Miss by 10 points last year and returned all 11 starters on offense to face an Ole Miss defense that was replacing seven starters, yet I rationalized myself into a corner from which I could hardly fathom a Memphis win. God, I am such a fool. So that’s that. No more action on the Rebels.
The rest of my trip to the game was great, though. I saw lots of old friends and had a great time tailgating in The Grove. If you haven’t ever been to an Ole Miss game, you should check it out, even if you never make it to the stadium. I’m sure most of you that tailgate do it the traditional way, standing around by your car in some faceless parking lot, swilling beer while you inhale exhaust fumes. That’s great and all, but there are other ways to go about it, and they do it right in Oxford, where the tailgating goes on in The Grove, 10 acres of plush grass with plenty of shade smack-dab in the middle of campus not 300 yards from the stadium. While the food and drink are great there, the main attraction for red-blooded American males is the scenery. The female scenery, that is. Nowhere in this country will you stumble upon a more concentrated amount of dropdead gorgeous college girls, all dolled up like they were going to a club instead of a football game. I saw skirts this weekend that would make Paris Hilton blush.
On another note, the NFL season finally kicks off this weekend after what seemed like an endless off season. Now we get to see these guys for real. No more of this third-string crap that goes on in the preseason, where the starters might play for half of the first quarter before sitting down to watch the never-going-to-make-the-team scrubs battle it out. I can’t wait to fire it up. I’ll be firmly planted on the couch, beer in hand, come kickoff Sunday. I’m sure there will be a trip down to the corner sports bar to check out some games on the big screen, too. It’s time to see the pros shine, and if the Vegas gods smile on me, my bankroll swell.
