Vicarious Happiness

Tonight, I went out with my friends Tucker and Keely to watch the Texas-Ohio State Fiesta Bowl. Growing up in Dallas, I had one of three choices when it came to college football: cheer for Texas, cheer for one of their rivals, or just pour myself completely into Cowboys' football and ignore college football altogether.

I chose the third option. Saturdays did not mean football at all. Football was played on Sundays.

It wasn't for a lack of trying. I actually went to an SMU football game as a kid, but they lost to Tulane...a school I had never heard of. And I owned an NCAA football video game for the Playstation, but something always weirded me out about having QB#4 throw to WR#19. One of my favorite things about football players is that they have names.

When I got to TCU, I jumped into college football with the Horned Frogs. Finally with a team, I was able to enjoy football on Saturday. But in the landscape of college football, I root for TCU first and everyone else is tied for last. Especially since TCU doesn't really have any rivals.

But this year, Tucker and Keely have come over a few times to watch UT games, and I've been following the Horns a bit. They watched a couple TCU games with me and cheered along...so I didn't have a problem returning the favor for their games.

With bad weather, their cable was not working. As soon as they showed up, our cable also stopped cooperating...so we set out to find somewhere to watch the game in peace. We ended up stopping at Mr. Gattis...even though we'd all already eaten. At halftime, we got kicked out of the restaurant, and we ended up at a very UT-heavy Pluckers.

Now let me let you inside my sports mind for a bit: the fact that other teams (i.e. teams I don't cheer for) have fans has always weirded me out. When I went on my famous trip to see all the baseball stadiums, I'd go to a Pirates game and be fascinated that all these people actually came to see the Pirates play. That they'd spend their Sunday afternoons watching the Pirates game. That they'd play hooky and go see the Pirates. That they lived and died with the freakin' Pirates.

Because, for me, it's simply natural to watch the Rangers (I know, it's a bad example, but go with me). There was simply no choice in the matter. Why would anyone else in the world be any different?

So to enter this place full of hardcore Longhorn fans was a little odd. Since I was with my roommate Ashley (a fellow Horned Frog and a quasi-secret UT-hater), I knew I wasn't completely alone in my lack of rooting interest. If not for Tucker and Keely, I wouldn't have cared who won.

But as I watched Texas take a decent lead and then blow it, I saw how the game affected my friends. And I started thinking back to this Cowboys season...or the TCU season...or other teams I care about. I knew how much it sucked to watch the Cowboys blow it against the Ravens, and how much it sucked to watch a BCS game slip away in TCU's loss to Utah. And I didn't want my friends to feel that way.

Plus, they were a lot more fun to joke around with when they didn't think their team was going to lose to a bunch of Buckeyes.

And when Quan Cosby scored to give the Longhorns the (eventual) victory, I was happy. Not in the same way I'd be happy if TCU had won, but I was able to summon up enough sports energy to have a rooting interest in the game. I got to enjoy the game through them, and after the last couple of football weeks, it was nice to be on the winning end of things.

So, for tonight, go Longhorns. You have a solid team, a great program, and some very hot female fans. Tomorrow? We'll see.