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Hobbes philosopher chef (50.250.118.65) on 8/29/2017 - 12:38 p.m. says: ( 28 views , 9 likes )

"In 1993 BIGJOE had severe case of gallstones, he was advised by his doctor to "

in response to College Football, Distilled To Its Essence, By The Late, Great Lewis Grizzard, posted by Ignatius J._Reilly
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College Football, Distilled To Its Essence, By The Late, Great Lewis Grizzard

He was a damned good Dawg.

 


I was walking behind a friend and his wife as we entered the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans on January 1, 1981, to watch Georgia play Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. If Georgia won, the Bulldo
gs would be the 1980 national collegiate football champions.

My friend, a fellow Georgia alumnus, was fraught with anticipation. He was pale. He was nervous. He was perspiring profusely.

***

His wife, noticing his condition said, “Calm down sweetheart. It’s just a football game.”

He stopped dead. He turned to his wife -- who had not gone to Georgia, and went to Bulldog games with her husband because she thought of it as her wifely duty -- looked her squarely in the eyes and said: “It is not just a football game. It’s our way of life against theirs.”

He meant that. I knew the man well enough to know he did, in fact, mean that.

It had something to do with Southerners against Northerners. Maybe it even had something to with his Methodist upbringing and the pope.

Whatever, it was clearly Us versus Them. Us won that day, tailback Herschel Walker leading Georgia to the national title….

You can go into all that stuff about the pageantry of college football, the fact the players are unspoiled kids and not a bunch of millionaires, and it’s a nice way to spend an afternoon and evening with friends.

But with me and mine, and with a lot of others, college football offers us an opportunity to circle our wagons and fight and kick and scream for our side against their side.

I suppose that’s also possible in politics and various cultural disagreements, but all that can get a little cloudy at times.

College football and allegiances are clear as an October Saturday afternoon. We haven’t had a war in 50 years that wasn’t tangled up in dissent and questionable motives…. But when Georgia meets Florida, when Auburn plays Alabama, when Ohio State gathers against Michigan, there are no such nagging annoyances.

Our way of life against theirs; clear as a bell.

And there is the opportunity to feel proud of something. Congress can waste your money, the president can lie to you, and your kid can wear an earring and watch MTV, but if your alma mater is 8-0, who’s sweating the small stuff?

And probably more than anything else, it also offers the opportunity to share in what is believed to be a noble cause, and such breeds friendships that can endure all else….

College football season is the best time I live. I once risked my life because of college football. 

In late August of 1985 following two weeks in the Soviet Union, I found myself in a hospital in London with a deadly infection of the artificial aortic valve in my heart. The British doctor said it would probably be necessary for me to remain there for six weeks’ treatment.

Georgia was to open its football season on Labor Day night a week later against Alabama in Athens. I slipped out of the hospital, caught a cab to Gatwick Airport and flew back to Atlanta. 

When asked later why I would risk my life in such a manner, I said, “I wasn’t about to stay in no foreign country during college football season.”

Us could win them all this year, or Us could lose a few. But, right or wrong, win or lose, always Us.

And Them can go to Hell. Is there any part of that that isn’t absolutely clear?

==============================

have gall bladder-ectomy ASAP as there was a danger of a stone occluding the bile duct which would require major surgery with a tube in the chest rather than laparoscopic surgery. He was told this on Tuesday, advised to have surgery Thursday. He postponed it to the following Monday. His reasoning "AUBURN PLAYS LSU ON SATURDAY AND WHAT IF I WERE TO DIE ON THE OPERATING TABLE AND MISS THE #badword#ED FOOTBALL GAME"

He traveled to Baton rouge, watched the game and dined at Waffle House that night.

True story.

You can look it up.

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Starred by: WAR DAMN EAGLE    aubie in bham    Ignatius J. Reilly    Trigger    ovar    IBleedMaroonDawg    Wayne    GENOABOY    dabble   
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"Man listen, everybody wants you to tell the truth unless they don't agree with you. ..." Charles Barkley

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