There’s a feeling of passion and self-sacrifice that comes with college football. You put your heart and soul into the game for your team and do whatever it takes to be there for them each and every Saturday. From standing in the hottest heat right on the metal bleachers, to not being able to feel any inch of your body with the rain pouring down harder and harder every second. Though in the scheme of it all, college football is a very short part of the year that needs to be cherished daily.
When it's game day, it's game day! Even though how exhausted you may be from the night before, there is no being late to the stadium, and, yes, late to me is not being in line four hours early. The pre-game experience is one that everyone really needs to experience at least once in their life. There is this indescribable feeling that comes with being the first person in line at the gates to get in, and being the first one to step foot into the stadium (hoping you don’t trip on the stairs on your way up) just to get the front row 35 yard line spot that you get every game.
Even if the dead heat, downpour or strong winds, every minute of the game is so worth it no matter how boring some can be. Yes, it’s about taking home another W for the week, but it's really about the whole school coming together for one reason, which is for the team that you call yours and are proud to be a part of. It is the pre-game routes that the football team runs, finding your favorite players to watch, which makes those two hours go by sort of fast! It is the band playing the fight song at the beginning and everyone chanting along. It’s the music played between every play that you dance like no one is watching. It’s preparing yourself for the next day where you will sound like you are super sick because you lost your voice from screaming at the top of your lungs. It is the hot chocolate that you pay $3.50 for at halftime that you drink in about five minutes because it gets cold instantly. It is about wearing the same hat to every game because it is your lucky hat and you will refuse to wear a warm beanie because you need the hat on your head and your blanket around you!
I honestly could not imagine what college would be like without College Football Saturdays and Cougar Football Saturdays! Each game goes by and you remember again the reason why you go to WSU. Every game though now has a very emotional aspect, which comes from a video. Those who are just as passionate as me in Cougar Football, they know that you stay for the whole game, there is no leaving early, you stand the whole time besides halftime, and you sing your heart out to the video that goes something like this…
I'm gonna need you to raise your glass
I don't care what you put in it
Here's to nights that you can't take back
We live hard but we love to laugh
And we all thought that we'd get rich fast
Hop the plane out for greener grass
Found out the green is cash
Don't compare to the friends that last
See, we won't forget where we came from
The city won't change us
We beat to the same drum
No, we won't forget where we came from
The city can't change us
We beat to the same drum, the same drum
lala da da da-da da-da
lala da da da-da da-da doe
(Hey!) and no matter where we go
We always find our way back home!"
-Andy Grammer
So to those that have not been able to experience what I just described... you need too! And one day I hope that you get just as emotionally invested in your team as I do in mine. When you get sick to your stomach when a guy on your team gets carted off of the field and shed a tear when you read the article the next morning that his college football career is over. I hope you cry of happiness after winning a huge game. So enjoy college football Saturdays while they last and Go Cougs!
