Growing up, my fall and winter weekends were full of football in all its forms with a soundtrack of my brother and my dad yelling loud enough to be heard anywhere in the house at sporadic intervals. My choices were: a) try to ignore the incessant clapping and screams of “Oh COME ON, so-and-so, get it together” or b) join them in the “fun”. Consequently, I ended up learning a lot about the game, or at least enough to semi-intelligently comment on plays and explain the rules to others. Over the years I also acquired more football fan gear than I ever remember requesting.
Despite my general apathy towards the game, it became a part of my life anyway. Now as a college student, especially one with FREE football tickets (the magical word to get a broke college student to do anything you want), I find myself back in the football world once again.
Actually going to college games in person is a whole different experience than sitting comfortably on my couch at home with unlimited snacks and the possibility of leaving at any time I desire. These were all freedoms I took for granted until I resolutely and naively took my place among the sweaty, drunken sardines the night of the first game. Everyone around us was overly excited and varying degrees of intoxicated, which made standing in close proximity for the next 4 hours – in hindsight – a bit daunting, but having no prior student section experience to go off of, I didn’t think much of it.
What you don’t realize from sitting at home is that the game stops incredibly often for commercial breaks. It’s 30 seconds of action, five minutes of waiting, 30 seconds of action, time out, another 5 minute break. Aaaaand repeat. Over and over again.
My mom jokes that a “football minute” is really more like five to ten in regular time, and she couldn’t be more right. You look at the clock and think to yourself “Oh wow, only 5 minutes left until halftime! Can’t wait to see the marching band!”, but the game drags on and on and suddenly it’s been a half hour and there’s still a minute left on the clock. Four quarters, 15 minutes apiece, becomes four hours real quick.
This is made even more interesting by the fact that the student section is standing only. If you try to sit for more than a minute, the rally committee will take it upon themselves to publicly shame you with the chant “Freshman stand up! Freshman stand up!” until you sheepishly rise and reclaim your place on the precarious rectangle of metal that has become your home for this event.
Part of what makes the standing situation so perilous is the dreaded domino effect. If anyone so much as stumbles in an effort to balance their 3 plates of nachos in their arms while taking a selfie, the entire section of people in front of them are at risk of becoming a game of human bowling. Once one goes down, they’ll likely take 3 or 4 people down with them.
Of course, this is mostly due to the choices people make before the game. Not to mention the pregaming that starts at 9am for a game at 3pm. If you really feel the need to get that drunk at 9am, you may want to take a step back for a second and reconsider your life choices. Just sayin’.
Despite the many things to complain about, there are definitely some highlights: adorable baby growling contests on the sidelines (not as weird as it sounds, the best bear impression wins a big stuffed one to take home, and if you’re a small enough child, you can even ride it like a horse, much to the adoration of the crowd), impressive marching band configurations, card stunts (except for getting minor head wounds from the avalanche that follows when everyone whips them down afterwards), and interesting halftime activities like junior Cal Bears (a tiny version of football that was much better than the actual big version).
Finally, the ending of both games has been incredibly interesting thus far. An epic win makes the long waits, drunken expletive screaming and repetitive cheers worth it. In the end we’re united in our blue and gold gear and we celebrate together with a resounding reminder to the losing team that this is bear territory!
