College football season is just over the horizon. The Gators are ready to make another run, Tebow is striking fear into the hearts of his opponents and Gainesville area bars are anxiously awaiting an influx in business after a summer slowed by a lack of students and a sluggish economy.
I know Urban Meyer would have us not look beyond the first game of the season (Hawaii 8/30) but for fans of Florida football, the match up the following weekend against in-state rival Miami has our "Rama-Jama" goin'.
This brings me to the title of the post. The last time that the thug-life contingent from south F-L-A rolled into town I was bartending at a downtown hotspot. The class of of our usual demographic decreased significantly on the night before the game. The ghetto-fabulous Miami fans made the night almost unbearable. A smattering of fights broke out throughout the evening due to the inability of Miami fans to conduct themselves in an adult manner. Glassware was broken, furniture trashed, cocktail waitresses harassed and above all...MY F**KIN' TIP JAR WAS STOLEN!
From right off the bar top, some classless moron got away with a couple of hours worth of tips which could've easily meant a month's car payment, the purchase of a pair of tickets to the game, or enough beer to fuel the next day's tailgate!
So I've just come across a web page that identifies the start time of this years UF vs. Miami game. Since ESPN is picking it up, it's going to be an 8:00pm game! This means area bartenders will be inundated with green and orange-clad douche-bags for 10+ hours on September 6th.
Watch your tip jars...keep 'em on the back bar out of reach of any Canes. They're NOT TO BE TRUSTED!
GO GATORS
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As a UM alum and a fan this is all very distressing to hear. I don't
doubt the veracity of the statements, which is why it is lousy news to get. The trouble with being the "premier" college team in a big metropolitan area (debatable these days, I know) is that you get a whole lot of hangers on and ne'er-do-wells who choose to hitch their wagon to the success of the program. This has blown up in UM's collective public face repeatedly over the last few decades.
I have always assumed that most of this behavior was not in practice by the student body or UM graduates and I hope that is true. Anybody who has been to a game at the Orange Bowl can attest to the dichotomy between the behavior of the student body versus that of the "adult" crowd from the surrounding city. It can be stark and frightening.
I will watch the game and cheer for the Canes to keep this game competitive, worth watching into the third quarter at least, and to play with class. But I will not venture out to "midtown" (or whatever the heck we're calling the area around the stadiums now) for it. College sports in general have become far, far too "real" for too many people who really have very little to do with the teams and students. And you see some really ugly, really primitive behavior from people these days, particularly at ground zero -- wherever the game is being played.
I often wonder if it wouldn't be for the better to see the die-hard college sports fan base return to that of college students and college students only. I feel like college sports would be a lot better off if the games were only of passing interest to the alumni and of even less interest to those with no ties to the schools at all.
Rob
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