Florida State football has been a staple of the Tallahassee community and the ACC for a long time now. Even before their very first national championship in 1993, students, alumnus, and locals alike all gather in the beloved Doak Campbell Stadium (or in front of their flat-screen) to cheer on the Noles. The problem in recent seasons is that the Noles have unfortunately not been living up to their expectations and been underperforming due to fan standards. Obviously, teams have up and down years, but recently the team has been on a steady decline.
Blame who you will, whether it be Jameis Winston starting the problems or Willie Taggart coming in and not fixing it, but Seminole fans are starting to get angry that the main point of their culture is being ruptured. With this anger comes hardcore drinking, and people are using the limited athletic prowess of the football team to embrace tailgate culture. People have taken to y-bombs, many beers, and lots and lots of White Claws (hence the shortage) to numb the pain of these pretty sad football seasons Florida State has been having.
Tailgating has become more important to a lot of Tallahassee natives and FSU students because quite honestly, tailgates are often more fun than sitting in the scalding hot stands at Doak. In retrospect, who would wanna essentially bake in direct sunlight when you can hang out in the parking lot, or at a frat where you can openly drink whatever you want, eat food that is either free or way cheaper than stadium price, and potentially still be able to watch the game on TV or listen to it on the radio or a podcast? In my head, this is a no-brainer.
For those sports fans that would die to see their favorite player sack someone in person, I understand going to the game. I also respect the families and really anyone who does, in fact, decide to endure the heat and horrible football. I also see the benefit of not going into the stadium. However, I do recommend going to games, especially as a student. A good time to go endure it and embrace the old football culture that used to be present in Tally is in your college years.
I have definitely fallen victim to tailgate culture one too many times and forwent going to the game, but at FSU, your football tickets are free. There will never be another time like now when you can just attend every football game at the best university in the world (I am so biased, don't at me). Therefore, I recommend going to as many games as you can during your college years even though the tailgate culture is oh, so tempting, because although FSU football can be so disappointing, especially as of late, there is no experience like doing the chop in Doak or singing the fight song upon every (very rare) touchdown.
As much as I love a tailgate, this culture is not ideal especially in a town like Tallahassee. FSU is and has been known for its party culture, so the fact that this university dropped one of the last big and popular traditional values for an enhancement to the party culture is kinda sad. Even though there is a reason behind the decline in football game attendance (the reason is poor gameplay if I haven't made it obvious enough), it is honestly dangerous for college students to totally embrace the tailgate culture. With it being normal to blackout and binge drink on the regular here, the fact that no one actually ends up going to the game makes these habits increase.
In addition, these tailgates obviously encourage day drinking, after potentially going out and probably going hard the night before, and a probable plan of doing the same after the conclusion of the game. This is not the best-case scenario for the health of the students here. Many college students try to embrace the "college experience" and I totally get it, but I do have to say the decline of FSU football is increasing student drinking habits, which is the opposite of what we actually need when you think about it.
Whether you chose to embrace this tailgate culture that is easily being adapted by the FSU community or not, it's perfectly fine as long as you continue to support FSU football, win or lose. The football team may be on a decline at current, however, it is so sweet to be a Nole, always and forever. As long as we, the FSU community, keep the support and the school spirit high, I honestly don't care what the "culture" is surrounding football season. And with that, as always, Go Noles!
