Little known fact #7853: I love college football.
Back in my undergrad years, I was out there for every home game, with my purple sweatshirt and face paint on, ready for the Wildcat growl and the key jangling before every kickoff.
Alas, I am only a fair-weathered fan.
And Northwestern has not had a fair-weathered season in a very long time.
No, I was a big fan in 2004 and 2005. Back then we could upset high-ranked teams like Wisconsin and Ohio State in triple overtime games. Oh yeah, we had brains and brawn, baby. Then we went to the Sun Bowl and lost disastrously to UCLA after a promising first half. And it was all downhill from there.
And that was the end of my love affair. I stopped watching football after it started to hurt too much. I mean seriously, our kicker couldn't even get the ball to bounce farther than 10 meters. How hard could it have been to just recruit a soccer player? I swear, even my mother could kick that ball farther and faster. Our football team was young and it showed on the field. So I stopped watching.
But now. Now! Northwestern is suddenly doing well. It's having its best season start since 1962! And aside from Penn State, Northwestern is the only other Big Ten School to be 5-0. We are one win away from going to a bowl game! Who knew that Northwestern could be mentioned in the same sentence as Penn State, without it being derogatory or sarcastic?
Ladies and gentlemen, Wildcat football is back, and I couldn't be more excited. GO CATS!
Don't go breaking my heart now, boys.
