Does God Love Me? Lately It's Been Hard To Tell

(Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)

The Religious Crisis of a Florida State Fan over the Past Two Decades

I was born in the late eighties, into a family of rabid Florida State fans.  Perfect timing.  My family was also religious.  Put the two together: the religion of Florida State football.  Every Saturday during football season my family would hold church at the altar of college football.  We would watch the game and I would pray.  Literally pray.  Before every game, during every timeout, whether silently in my head or publicly before our ritual game meal, Mexican by the way, that Florida State would win.  “Please God help FSU to win.”  Yeah I was a kid, but boy did I mean it.  And guess what?  God heard me, or so it seemed, and for the better part of a decade Florida State won.  They were the team of the nineties: Four national championship game appearances with two titles; ACC championships the whole decade through; a Heisman trophy winner; one of the greatest coaches of all time and several upon several other prestigious accolades.  God loved the Seminoles.  God loved me.  And I loved God and the Seminoles.  I was a happy kid.

Then the nineties ended and the calender year struck double zeros, and things rolled right along.  The Noles started the new century off by turning in a great season. They had a Heisman trophy quarterback and capped the year off with a national championship appearance.  They lost, but things were set for another great decade. And then, well, apparently I pissed God off.  I’m not sure what changed.  I prayed the same way, although with a little less zeal as I did when I was seven, but suddenly my prayers weren’t being answered.  Florida State began to lose.  For the first few seasons I assumed it was a simple anomaly, I mean Florida State didn’t win it all every season, but then it became painfully obvious.  FSU was bad.  And they stayed bad, and each season they got worse.  It was as if God was not only not helping FSU win, but rather He was helping them lose.  They even began to struggle beating marginal ACC opponents whom they made a habit of embarrassing the entire decade previous.  

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