Sports Talk...Andi Style

Today I went with my dad to the New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque, where San Jose State University beat the University of New Mexico 20-12. I know some of you like to take notes at games and post your thoughts. I will do the same in my own special way.

First of all, I have a problem with all these bowl games. Half of the teams get to go, which means it isn't really that big of a deal. UNM lost this game, which gave them a losing season overall, and I feel like it's ridiculous that they were in a bowl period.

Next, this was the first New Mexico Bowl, and they sure hyped up the New Mexico part. I used to go to UNM football games all the time (my dad has had the same season tickets way up high on the fifty yard line for around thirty years), but I hadn't been to one in over five years, so there were new things to see, like the fancy bathrooms near the entrance and the big video screens. Big video screens are nice, but they also make it possible to show commercials, and I hate having loud speakers blare commercials at me at a football game. A whole bunch of the commercials were advertisements for this here Land of Enchantment, with stupid lines that went something like "who knew there was golfing in New Mexico?" or "I used to think turquoise was just a color, until I visited New Mexico," or "I used to think all Native American pottery looked the same until I visited nineteen pueblos in New Mexico." Now don't get me wrong, I'm all about New Mexico pride and I think you all should come visit, because it really is a unique state, but these advertisements from the tourism people made me want to puke. Plus, almost everyone there was from New Mexico anyway, since only two sections actually had San Jose fans and half of them were with the band or the dance squad. And one other thing- the trophy for this bowl was a big Native American pottery bowl mounted on a wooden base. Maybe that's cool? Or maybe San Jose was disappointed they didn't get a real trophy like everyone else?

Next let me tell you about our seats. This was a special game, so we weren't in the usual seats. We were eleven rows up from the field, but on the ten yard line. I'd never been that close to the field before, so it was neat to actually see stuff down there without binoculars. For example, I always knew where the ESPN camera guy was. Maybe you saw me on TV? I was wearing a red hat. I also could see with my own bad eyesight two of the sports guys from the local news stations. And the cheerleaders looked much younger than they used to... Speaking of which, the cheerleaders and band were way down on the other end of our side, so we couldn't hear them at all, and instead we had the San Jose band blaring straight at us from across the field. I mean, they were pretty good I guess, but not as fun as hearing our own band with our own cheers. Twice some cheerleaders came down to our side to do the two part "Go" - "Lobos" - "Go" - "Lobos" but both parts were on the same side of the field, so we couldn't ever hear the "Lobos." "Go...Go...Go" isn't that fun of a cheer.

Well, if you've made it this far in my long post, you're probably wondering about the game itself. We (UNM) didn't do very well. We only made one touch down and that was in the last two minutes. We ran with the ball a lot, but never made it into the end zone. We also fumbled a lot. It was a big disappointment, considering this was in UNM's home stadium and everyone was making such a big deal out of the whole New Mexico thing. Plus, as I already mentioned, there weren't really that many San Jose fans (but they were sure loud and enthusiastic), which made the celebration at the end look pathetic since most of the stadium was empty except for those few blue and yellow fans down on the field.

So that's about it. Any questions?