This
is how a game between No. 8 LSU and unranked Syracuse affected a group of
people far from the Carrier Dome on a Saturday afternoon in late September; the
game was carried on ESPN. We saw plenty
of shots of Clare’s boyfriend Chris, very serious, chewing gum, headset on as
he worked the sideline; whatever he’s doing with the offensive line must be
working because the Orange scored 24 points in a 34-24 loss. At one point, I stopped the television—oh,
what technological times we live in—for Michele to take a couple of pictures of
Chris on her camera phone which she then sent to Clare, who was at a fall-ball
game with Valpo. I imagine Chris’s
parents were doing something like that, too.
My
father-in-law, who treated himself to an early 84th birthday gift
with two broken ribs in a fall, also watched from the couch in his family room. “They really acquitted themselves well,” he
said on the phone through the fog of pain medication. Yes, they did, with a third-string
quarterback from a few towns west of us getting his first-ever start.
And
I was left to wonder why football can’t refrain from using baseball talk. I heard the announcers say the Syracuse
quarterback was going for the homerun and something about a pitch count. No doubt, tomorrow I’ll hear about a
defensive back patrolling center field. But
baseball games never feature a blitz or buttonhook. I wonder why.
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