Eating Crow

As a die hard Canes fan, I've always hated the Florida Gators. Not as much as I hate Notre Dame, but close.

Notre Dame repeatedly beat UM in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, by huge scores. Visiting Miami was a nice beach vacation for the Irish --some fun in the sun and a guaranteed win. That changed in the 80s, when the Canes began to dominate. Did Notre Dame accept this inevitable end to their victories? No --they started calling the Canes thugs, and cancelled the series. Sanctimonious whiners. One of my most obvious expressions of schadenfreude is Notre Dame's current misery. They're 0-4 this year, despite having great recruiting classes the past few years. Ha! May they lose forever!

The Florida Gators were a yearly rival, until they also got tired of losing to Miami and chickened out s well. They claimed their SEC schedule was too grueling, and they wanted to schedule more "geographically diverse" teams. Now they play schools like Western Kentucky. Wussies! In 1983, I travelled to Gainesville and watched the Gators crush my Canes. The Canes went on to win their first national championship. The Florida fans wore T shirts proud that they had beaten the champs. Losers!

Lately, the Canes haven't been so great, but they still beat Florida the past times they've played.

And now, this weekend, I'm spending money and travelling to Gainesville to watch the Gators play, and I'll be cheering for them.

Of course, Daughter #1 is a UF sophomore, but she couldn't care less about football. My neighbor is a "Bull Gator," and he invited me to go and watch UF play Auburn in his VIP seats. We have a Saturday planned of sitting in a sports bar, eating wings and drinking beer, and watching college football all day (including my Canes against lowly Duke). At 630 pm, we'll wander over to the Swamp, and tailgate before the 8 pm kickoff. I won't wear a Gators shirt, but I will cheer for them, as I did last January when they beat Ohio State for the National Championship.

Dave a sort of Gator fan. MAybe North Korea and South Korea can someday be allies...