Thursday, November 22, 2007

Game fervor eludes some

By Alexander Parker

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The Border War 2007

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Reader poll

Personnel-wise, who do you think creates the the biggest matchup problem for KU's defense?

  • QB Chase Daniel 35% 1656 votes
  • RB Tony Temple 1% 72 votes
  • TE Martin Rucker 9% 463 votes
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  • Do-it-all Jeremy Maclin 44% 2045 votes
  • Someone else 2% 114 votes

4639 total votes.

For some, it's boring. For others, it's oblivion. Still others just don't care.

"For crying out loud, what's wrong with them?" asked Ann Reaney, who was dumbfounded to learn that some of her fellow Lawrencians were not planning to watch Kansas University's showdown against Missouri at Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday.

Many fans have been prepping for the match for weeks, and while the city has been gearing up for the big game - even agreeing to project it onto a wall at Ninth and New Hampshire streets - others expressed a collective "meh" when asked whether they looked forward to watching the game.

"I just don't do sports," said Sandy Kircher, who conceded that she thought the Jayhawks' unlikely push for the national championship was exciting. "I'm happy for them. They practice really hard."

Haskell Indian Nations University student Jimmy Lee said neither the game nor the Jayhawks played to his loyalties.

"I don't really go for KU," he said. "It doesn't really pertain to me. I don't really get into football."

The undefeated Jayhawks meet the Tigers on the field at 7 p.m. Saturday. The game will be televised on ABC.

"I'll be out of town, nowhere near a television," said Mike Readinger, whose family obligations will keep him from watching the game. On Saturday, he'll be on a tractor at his father-in-law's home in Independence, Kan.

"He feeds me Thanksgiving dinner, and I help him with chores," Readinger said.

KU Football

Comments

Jhawk8 (anonymous) says...

Great story. Did you get paid to write that?

November 22, 2007 at 1:18 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

thetagger (anonymous) says...

We don't take kindly to people who don't take kindly to KU sports teams, so you can just geeeet out.

November 22, 2007 at 7:18 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Displayhawk (anonymous) says...

communists!
lol

November 22, 2007 at 8:38 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

troutsee (anonymous) says...

I couldn't have gotten through the day without this article. This guy and Woodling must share the same desk in the basement of the LJW.

November 22, 2007 at 9:04 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

bobsarobot (anonymous) says...

that guy from haskell is a traitor. think of all the excitement and support the people of lawrence and KU generate for the haskell sports program. he'll take our support but not reciprocate??? what an indian giver.

November 22, 2007 at 10:29 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

McGuzzo23 (anonymous) says...

I like the guy that says he won't be able to get to a TV because he will be on a tractor. Yea a lot of farming to get done at 7 o'clock at night when it's 35 degrees outside. Pretty worthless story I guess.

November 22, 2007 at 11 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

bmcmich1 (anonymous) says...

These posts had me cracking up!! thetagger, love the South Park reference. And mcguzzo?? You mean you haven't heard of night farming?? It's all the rage down in Indy these days.

I mean honestly, the LJW thought "lets go find people who don't want to watch the game, and write a story about it!!"

(shaking my head...)

November 22, 2007 at 11:29 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

seattlehawk_78 (anonymous) says...

Frankly, I envy those who can look at this game with indifference. I've been a sports fan my entire life but I think of it as a curse. I am hopelessly addicted to KU sports and to a lesser extent the Chiefs (have completely given up on the Royals and baseball in general) but it can be painful when they lose. If there was a pill one could take to break an addiction to sports I would take it.

November 22, 2007 at 1:54 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jross1972 (Johann Ross) says...

seattlehawk...

I totally agree. I too am hopelessly addicted to Kansas sports; in fact, if I tried NOT to be a KU fan I would fail. It means too much. Setting aside, for the moment, the rivalry between Kansas and Missouri, I ask myself why sports are so important to me...and to others, for that matter. It pervades our entire conciousness at times, and inspires hatred, love, anger, and exhaltation.

It has to be something so basic that the answer must lie in something we all have in common. Something biological or on the order of our primitive instincts. Perhaps we enjoy sports because they mirror the struggle between man and the elements, harking back to our fundamental struggles to survive in times prior to modern civilization. Back when "winning" meant a clan of our ancestors had successfully conquered nature and captured from it a meal in the form of an athletic deer or an imposing mammoth.

Losing, on the other hand, signified BEING conquered. Subjected. Hungry. Or worse yet, handed over to death by starvation or at the hoof or horn of an untamed beast. Yes, that's it. Sports typify something in our essence derived from primitive man.

In the modern world, we reenact this drama by substituting opponents. Consider Missouri now. There is not a more hated rival in Kansas than those with which we share a border on our easternmost boundary. In fact, I hate that we even share a border with them! Kansas represents that which is good, Missouri is our enemy. Superman/Lex Luthor. Rocky versus Drago. Jesus and Satan.

At the origin of this rivalry are the positions our states took on the question of slavery and the bloodshed that resulted in the middle of the 19th century. Missourians will say that though they had Quantrill we had Brown, and that both were guilty of commmitting atrocities. But our cause was just. Theirs was not. Simple as that.

Just as we hold on to our human attraction to sport, so too we hold on to this rivalry. It means something. On Saturday, let the rivalry turn to revelry because good triumphs over evil. We HAVE to win this game!

November 22, 2007 at 6:06 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

seattlehawk_78 (anonymous) says...

jross,

That's some pretty deep stuff a lot of which hits close to home. I ponder the meaning of my addiction occasionally and I've tried to kick the habit but it always pulls me back in. The lows can be pretty disappointing but as you know the highs are absolutely euphoric.

It would be bad enough to lose to mizwho but to see them in the nc title game sounds illegal or at the very least immoral.

On that cheery note, Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Jayhawk fan(atic)s and addicts.

November 22, 2007 at 6:33 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

kuae99 (anonymous) says...

As for the importance of sports, read the KU Alumni magazine from a few issues ago. There's a really good article about it by a KU psych researcher.

November 22, 2007 at 8:14 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jayhawk_in_iowa (anonymous) says...

bobsarobot proves that politically correctness is alive and well these days.... oh well at least a KU fan, though somewhat narrow minded and stereotypical, but no one is perfect....

November 22, 2007 at 11:11 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

kylecisnum1 (anonymous) says...

thanks you thetagger for that quote! i actually received the nickname "skeeter" in highschool because i did that quote so many times and apparently i did it pretty well! happy thanksgiving everyone! well, day after thanksgiving! looking forward to tailgaitin and gettin to see this game in person!

November 23, 2007 at 12:22 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

bobsarobot (anonymous) says...

jayhawk in iowa.......just a joke. not politically correct, not meant to be offensive though. people can laugh at things in life other than america's funniest home videos showing clips of suburban dad's getting hit in the groin. perhaps that is the kind of humor you dig though. hopefully your yeast infection won't prevent you from watching the game on saturday night.

November 23, 2007 at 3:33 a.m. ( | suggest removal )