Brand New Season

College football is back on the airwaves, and not a moment too soon. I was missing football quite a bit over the summer. Having overdosed on baseball, I needed something new to occupy the sports-side of my brain.

Here's a couple of quick takes from the first day:
(Photo: AP/John Raoux)

Virginia Tech beat East Carolina 17 - 7, and they needed the victory. A little good news on campus might go a long way. The school had a mass murder 4 months ago, and their hero alumnist Michael Vick just pleaded guilty last week to killing dogs.

I enjoyed the game, but the constant references to 'tragic events' was irritating. They even threw up a graphic of the number of killed and wounded, plus the major (English) of the mass murdering student. I found this a bit weird in the middle of what they were calling a 'healing' football game. Dead students aren't football stats, and the murderer wasn't a wide receiver; who cares what his major was?

For the record, mass murder is not a tragic event. It's murder. 9/11, 7/7, the Virginia Tech shootings, all of them have been labelled 'tragic.' They're not. Tragedy is a 3-year-old girl fighting leukemia, or a church roof collapsing on a wedding party.

Murder is murder. To call it a tragic event makes it seem accidental, and that the murderer was merely on the scene. It does a disservice to the victims: they were not victims of accident or circumstance. They were victims of a scumbag lunatic, and we need to remember that lest we let it happen again: "Oh, dear. Another tragic event. What can you do?"

Another thing I noticed during the game was a camera shot inside one of the athletic buildings. There's a room named after Michael Vick. His name is emblazoned on the door. I wonder how long it will stay there. It could remain there forever for all I care; I'm just interested to see which way the school goes.

Michigan lost to Appalachian State, 34-32. Appalachian who? I had to Google the school to find out where it is on the map (Boone, North Carolina; apparently they have quite a music program).

It was a hell of game. It's the first time in college football history that an under-division school has beaten a top-25 ranked team (Michigan was ranked #5). Further, Appalachian State won on Michigan's home field. This pretty much assures that Michigan will be knocked out of the top 25. The rest of their season will be a fight for pride. A conference championship is remote at best, and as for the national championship, you can forget it.

This game is the epitome of the old saying, "That's why you play the game." The game was played in Michigan, and it should have been a walk. The only people more embarrassed than the Michigan coaching staff are probably the gamblers in Las Vegas.

I'd write more, but I'm now busy watching Wake Forest and Boston College kick the hell out of each other.

It's a brand new season, and I love it already.