BYU Fan

When I was growing up, football was not even a remote part of my home or family life. As a kid, the most I knew about football was that it was the annoying thing on TV that kept popping up as my dad was surfing the channels looking for his "John Wayne" movie. I became a little more aware of the game when I started Bingham and there were games every Friday night. At that point, the games served as a perfect social scene which I rarely missed. I attended those games faithfully for 3 years but I probably watched about 3 minutes in the whole 3 years I went. I only cared that my friends were there and we were probably going to go get ice cream after. I was aware that Bingham players were out on the field, but to me it just seemed like they were a bunch of frustrated teen agers letting out some aggression and tackling eachother. I did not see any rhyme or reason to the game, nor did I care to learn. Then I met Jake and the choice was no longer mine. I married into a family that "bled blue" (a phrase I am now familiar with but originally thought that they were just trying to describe a bad bruise) and were season ticket holders since the dawn of time. As a matter of fact, my and Jake's first date was a BYU game and what an eye opener that was. Imagine going on a first date with someone you have only known for about a week. First dates are always a little scary and inevitably awkward no matter how hard you try. Now add in the facts that he takes you to a game that you know nothing about and actually somewhat despise because all of the football players you have known in the past were cocky pigs. AND.... as you are walking into the stadium, your date informs you that his entire family is there because they are avid BYU fans and have season tickets. (I still give Jake a hard time about this. It would have been nice to tell me these things on the phone when he asked me out. Somehow, these facts were left out.) So, there I am, sitting with his whole family, trying to impress them and not look like a complete goon but I don't have a clue what is going on. I don't know when to jump up and down in celebration or when to get upset. And then the worst part of it all. Cougars score and everybody gets to their feet and starts singing the fight song word for word as if it were a song on the Top 100 radio station that plays everyday and gets in your head and you can't get it out. I felt like a complete idiot. I sat there wishing I had paid closer attention to all of those Bingham games but what could I do. I just hoped they wouldn't notice what an uneducated fool I was in the arena of football.

Fast forward 8 years later. Yesterday was the infamous BYU vs. Utah rivalry game and the Hancock BYU party was at my house this year. Now, you are probably thinking that this is a day that I would dread, but ironically, it is a day that I had been looking forward to for quite some time. Since marrying Jake, I have become very fond of this crazy game of football. When we lived in California Jake would love to spend his Saturday afternoons watching college football and since we didn't have any family around and my idea of fun did not include wandering around LA by myself, I would sit down and watch it with him. Somewhere along the way I got sucked in to the excitement and that is when I was hooked. Now I am addicted. I find myself sitting on the couch screaming phrases like "quarterback sack" and "third and out". Phrases that might as well been Chinese 8 years ago. I love it though. I love talking about the game for days after with Jake. I love getting together with the family and feeling the emotion of the game surge through the room. And finally, I love that I now can proudly say, without any hesitation, I "bleed blue"!

P.S. Congrats to all you Ute fans out there. It was a tough game for us Cougars but you earned that win! We'll see you next year in Provo!