To be the pulsating adrenaline amidst Jake Locker’s being. The joy and competitive thrill so refined and complete as to escape in a primal yowl, the subconscious seeking to grab 320 pound teammates and jump high in the air while encapsulated by the ascending thunder from 70,000 fans. Disbelief turns to invincibility as an excited wind blows around the lower bowl of the stadium.
To have the whole experience whisked away in a pico-second, the gods of fate mocking the degradation of free will.
Twenty years into the future and the basic framework of college football has withstood the test of time and the endless furtive debates. Except for two minor differences, the landscape of Saturday in autumn remains as familiar as the turning of the leaves. Robots programmed by nano-chips imperceptible to the naked eye, have replaced the twenty two young men on the field. There are no winners or losers in the cavernous and nearly empty stadiums, only the celebratory pageantry of passive brainwashing and the soft clinking of metal on metal and the machines cannot exceed five miles per hour. For those who pine for the real experience of Saturdays and the thrill of battle, cyberspace is able to accommodate an acceptable reality.
The abolishment of competition and the effects on all major sports was not a result of a singular incident, rather a gradual deterioration of the values surrounding individuality. Through general carelessness and the technology of the web, the factors of political correctness, socialism and guilt combined to forge a society functioning tediously like an anthill. Those who had strived for control, were now in the ironic position of not being able to yield their power. In other words, the activists had become workers and comrades, never realizing that they were indirectly serving a fruitless coalescence, a damaged mass mind. For the Benthams and Descartes of the past, the structured brilliance of imagined utopia was in fact a trap for humanity, a veritable evolutionary cul-de-sac. So much for the grand scheme of liberalism.
From Jake Locker’s taunting penalty, to the case of the third string running back at California who sued the university for equal playing time and won, the college game was simply allowed to decline. Forgotten or simply ignored was the prowess of television money from football in the athletic department budget. In response to drilling for oil in Alaska, an anti-capitalistic backlash was successful in removing at first the peripheral symbols of the military industrial complex. One of the initial causalities was professional sports, followed by college football. As the verbiage of “equal” took over legal documents, the first NBA game under the influences of cultural changes gone wild, rivaled the Westminster Dog Show combined with Woodstock and hempfest, complete with a circus. As the first quarter ended, not one basket had been scored by the gold fish in the bowl under the basket. A stench of B.C. hash and manure filled the arena and as the spotlight of captured a man hugging a bonsai tree in the third deck, a thunderous applause erupted from the crowd. It was not until the following morning that it was noticed that the synthetic white fibers of the nets had been replaced by a series of blinding topaz beads.
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In reverence to serious debate, the ending of the BYU-UW contest will remain eternally marred by controversy. Jake Locker made the big play and for anyone who understands the intensity of the gridiron and the random jets of adrenaline, the feeling of joy is nearly indescribable. That being said, BYU clearly dominated a young Husky defense converting 12 of 14 third downs. Could UW have slowed down an efficient Cougar attack in overtime?
Clearly, it is not within the parameters of the officiating crew to surmise the outcome of a game. Yes, the Huskies should have converted the 35 yard extra point. Yes, the audacity of Tyrone Willingham to have one finger up, when the old saying goes, “Go for the win at home and the tie on the road.” is disheartening. Yes, the interpretation of the celebration rule was suspect. Will anyone remember how entertaining a game this was between two well-matched teams? No. Will BYU go through their schedule unscathed? No.
The NCAA rules committee must be held accountable for authoring a rule which leaves room for vast debate and puts a lasting constraint on both players and fans.
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