College Football: One Fan's Ultimate Heresy

I hate this place.

In case you are not familiar with the picture above, it is Lane Stadium, home of the Virginia Tech Hokies.  The sight sends chills down my spine and makes me throw up a little bit in my mouth.

Every time my inept team visits, they are thrashed.  Their last win here was in 1998.  This fact is subtly pointed out by a beer-soaked fan spitting in my face when I visit.

I hate the Hokies in the purest sense in sports: The sight of Maroon and Orange  together makes me cringe (I avoid looking at trees during the fall); I think that the fan base is, objectively speaking, devil-spawn; and I lose two siblings every Thanksgiving.  They are dead to me until the Sunday after the game.

I am a University of Virginia Cavaliers fan.  I lose a lot of money betting on my team to said siblings almost every Thanksgiving.  The Hokies have won eight of the past nine meetings.

That, however, is going to change.  Not because my Cavs will magically run the table and win an ACC championship, but because I will not make any more bets.

I am dumping my team like a cheating girlfriend.

It sounds terrible, but it feels so good.

When the Trojans come to Charlottesville this year, I will not try and convince my friends that the Cavs will win.  I will not make the same old argument that we were shafted in bowl selection in December.

And I will not fall asleep thinking about how much better I can call plays than Mike Groh.  (He picks plays with the mindset of not losing instead of calling plays to win.  Some play-calling conservatism is good, but not here.)

I graduated from UVA a year ago, and I am going to law school at LSU in August.  No more will I say the last championship team I rooted for was my 1991 Minnesota Twins.  By the end of last season I was openly rooting for LSU to embarrass tOSU, and they did.

I probably will not even watch my Miami Dolphins on Sundays this year.  (I picked my favorite teams in 1991 when I was six.  There was no rhyme or reason except that my brother got the home teams.)

I will not have to abide by the cruel mediocrity of my sports teams.  I can now expect more.

My new team beat Virginia Tech 48 to 7 last year.  I feel giddy like a kid at Christmas.  My new team is headed for a 10-plus win season.

When my buddy asked me who I would root for if UVA ever played LSU, I said I would want UVA to win.

I was lying.  I am a bad person.  But the Cavs are a bad team.

I still love my lovable losing Cavs, but I love my Tigers more.  Geaux Tigers!!!

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