Going into the belly of the beast

Get the fuck ready...





Before the season started, The Chelsea Bee and I decided that the 2007 edition of our annual Gator game SEC road trip (at Auburn was 2006) obviously had to be Oct. 6 - at LSU. We did this in anticipation of the Megasupercolossalgigantic UltraClash that we thought this game could be. There was a checklist, before the first game of the season had been played, that we figured would need to be met to qualify the game for the lofty and elusive Megasupercolossalgigantic UltraClash classification. Now that the time has arrived for us to buckle our chinstraps and load up the car to head up to the Bayou, let's look at that list and where each item stands as of today...

Both teams ranked in the Top 10...check. A night kickoff...check. College Gameday on site...check. SEC and National Title implications oozing from all orifices...check. Lots of hype and superlatives being thrown around such as, "The largest crowd to ever see a football game in the state of Louisiana is expected"...check. LSU comes in undefeated...check. Florida comes in undefeated...che-woops.

The Gators may have lost at Auburn this past weekend, but look at that list. Everything else that was on it before the season started still applies now despite the one loss. If anything, the Gators' loss might have made this game EVEN BIGGER. And I couldn't be more fired up. Do you hear me? I COULD NOT BE MORE FIRED UP. The Bee and I roll out of Gainesville Friday morning and expect to be on the Bayou by Friday evening (we will be attempting to "conduct relations" in each state we pass through on the way for the sake of one day crossing them all off). We'll be staying with some of The Bee's relatives in Houma. We'll spend Saturday afternoon in Baton Rouge seeing the town and campus, and Saturday night, we'll be two of the 93,000 plus on hand at Tiger Stadium for an event they say every college football fan should experience once - a night game at Tiger Stadium . As I am fond of saying, they're gonna be jam packed and jelly-tight for this one, with 93,000 Cajuns hopped up on bourbon, crawfish, and dreams of a national title, and if that doesn't get your fire going, there's a cold, dark mass in your chest where your heart is supposed to lie. Naturally, I will be wearing at least one article of UF clothing at all times during the trip.

They say there's nothing in sports quite like a big night game at Tiger Stadium. Well they don't get any bigger or more at night than this shit. There's nothing else that needs to be said. If anything more about this game needs to be explained to you, then you probably stopped reading two paragraphs ago.

Here we go.

Go Gators!

An Ode to Hockey

I have to admit that the buildup to the new NHL season this year was without the fanfare that past seasons have held. A crappy new Lightning logo, an arena sound experience that borders upon brutal, and two huge weekend football games would seemingly overshadow the opener tonight at the Ice Palace Forum in downtown Tampa.

Hockey's opening week has always fallen during football season, and things don't really get serious until after New Year's, sure. But you know what? It's still hockey. I still woke up this morning anticipating the game tonight, I've still been talking about it all day, and even with the Gators (along with me and The Chelsea Bee) about to head up to Baton Rouge for a huuuuuuuge game with LSU, for two and a half hours tonight, nothing else will matter, and it'll all come rushing back, and I'll realize why I became so enamored and fascinated with this game at Expo Hall on a January night in Tampa 15 years ago.

In years past, I have tried to extol the virtues of the most exciting sport in the world to anyone who would listen. Even as people would (sometimes gleefully) point out sagging television ratings for the game, or when idiots in the media made the same tired jokes about no one paying attention, it didn't matter to me. I've said this before - hockey is the ultimate heart sport. I think that goes not only for playing it, but for caring about it too. There are no casual hockey fans. You're either in or you're out. You have to want to be there, and you can't fake it. That's probably part of the reason we all love it so much. It's like our own little club.

To quote ESPN hockey writer John Buccigross, there are four main hockey values: heart, courage, mental toughness, and artistic expression. Some sports have two or three of those, but give me another sport that has all four. You can't do it. From my favorite sport of football, which lacks artistic expression, down to hobbies like ultimate frisbee, which has three of the four but requires no courage, not one sport has all four of those values woven into its fabric - except for hockey. So even as the "mainstream" sports world revolves all around us, never seemingly ready to stop even for a little while for hockey, I'm ready to set aside some time each week for odd man rushes...the sound of a puck hitting the crossbar...slapshots from the point, deflections off a body in front, battles in the corner, and power play goals. You've got to love power play goals.

In short, I'm ready for hockey, and if you are too, then stick with me and I'll stick with you. And you and me and the most exciting game in the world are all we're really going to need.