When a Football Game Takes a Bigger Role

I’m completely exhausted.  My shoulders hurt, my ears are plugged, and my voice is hoarse.  Still.  Last Saturday night was intense and I’m still paying the price for it.  If you’ve been hiding a rock since last Saturday, the Huskies won a thrilling double-overtime game against Oregon State, 35-34.

I can’t do the game justice by retelling it.  Thrilling really is the best adjective I can think of and I don’t want to write that word over and over again.  I’ll put up a post with some observations from the game later.  But, ever since the game a bigger question has been on my mind.  Do I put too much into these games?

Now, my body hurting isn’t all from the Huskies game on Saturday.  I did have an intramural game earlier in the day that beat me up a little bit.  Still, when I was sitting on the couch with my brother on Sunday we were both remarking how we were physically and mentally tired.  Also, Dan got a little bit sick at the game and Joe punched a hole in his wall.

Yes, this game was a little more intense than most but Husky games affect my mood quite a bit.  With a loss, the weekend feels like a waste and the next week seems long.  But, with a win, I’m happy.  I’m more talkative, more outgoing, and generally a better version of myself.

After the game on Saturday, I was reading the free forums at Dawgman.com.  This very subject was being addressed in one forum and an overall consensus was that the outcome of Husky games affected fans throughout the week.  Is this too far?  Is it sad?

My mother would say it’s sad and that I shouldn’t care so much.  So would most girls in the world.  But, I have a different view.  It’s good to be passionate about certain things and the Huskies are one of the things I’ve decided to be passionate about.  It makes me upset when they don’t play well but the reward is doubled when they win.  I’m emotionally tied to the Huskies and am still drained from Saturday.  But, it was worth it.  Maybe my shoulders wouldn’t hurt as bad if I hadn’t picked up my brother twice (before they called the pass interference  and when we actually won) and my roommate once.  Maybe my voice wouldn’t be hoarse if I hadn’t yelled to the point where I got light-headed in the 4th quarter.  Maybe I shouldn’t have been so invested in one game.  Or, maybe I did it right because, once that two point conversion was dropped, I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

Andrew Long