I was reading Catcher in the Rye last night, and there's a passage that I thought that Holden Caulfield easily could have been talking about Tom and me:
At this other tiny table, right to my left, practically on top of me, there was this funny-looking guy and this funny-looking girl...I listened to their conversation for a while, because I didn't have anything else to do. He was telling her about some pro football game he'd seen that afternoon. He gave her every single goddam play in the whole game -- I'm not kidding. He was the most boring guy I ever listened to. And you could tell his date wasn't even interested in the goddam game, but she was even funnier looking than he was, so I guess she had to listen.
Tom has had Iowa season football tickets since 1998, when he first started attending the games as a freshman in college, cheering wildly from the student section. When he graduated from college, he continued to show his Hawkeye support by trekking 308 miles from Kansas City to Iowa City six or seven times a year. He hasn't missed a home Iowa football game in seven years. He can do play-by-plays from games that were played before he was born.
He had season tickets with his parents and the lovely James Boyd for the previous two years. This year the University of Iowa added a section on to the legendary Kinnick Stadium. Since his seats were going to be moved anyway, he decided to buy two more season tickets: one for Sam, another guy who lived on Tom and James' floor in college, and for me. I have been to one home football game so far this season, and it's the only one I intend to attend. For the last four months, Tom has been going around telling people that I am the season ticket holder, and that I let the rest of them sit with me. Whenever anyone asks about the seats, Tom directs them to me, as in "Oh, Megs owns the tickets. Megs, tell them about the seats."
I think Tom feels its his sense of duty to expand my knowledge on football and the Iowa football team. We went to the Iowa vs. Purdue game a couple ago with our friends Jacob and Sara (who attended school at Purdue); before the game, Tom went through the entire starting lineup with me. Both defensive and offensive. I was instructed to repeat every single player after he said them. Since then, he's taken to drilling me on the players. For example:
Tom: Who's the quarterback?
Megs: That's easy. Drew Tate.
Tom: Defensive tackle?
Megs: Mitch King.
Tom: The other defensive tackle?
Megs: Ummm...
Tom: You know, his buddy?
Megs: Matt Krohl!!
Tom: Good! Scott Chandler?
Megs: Umm...
Tom: We just did this one, Megs.
Megs: Ummm...
Tom: Your favorite position?
Megs: Tight end! Tight end!
Tom has an infinite amount of patience (or maybe that's me). Now that I have some of the players and their positions down, we've started matching players with their numbers. I know you're all envious of me and my newfound Iowa football knowledge.
6 comments:
the only thing which makes me feel better about yesterday's loss is that you know what position chad greenway plays.
Isn't he a cat? ;-)
he morphs back and forth from a cat to a human football player, we've covered this ground before
now, when not in cat form, what position does he play?
Linebacker, baby, linebacker!
And he's #18.
just think, you'll know them just in time for the season to end and for the fortunate few to graduate
That was my thought, too, but don't tell Tom. ;-)
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