After seeing sports from the NFL to the Olympics so politicized, many also expressed relief at the patriotism on display at college football games.
I’ve been back in the SEC two days, and I’ve already lost track of how many college football references have cropped up in conversation. My college freshman brother, never a particularly big football fan, was checking the score between Florida and Florida Atlantic because, as he informed me, several of his friends were there. We met extended family for dinner, and my uncle excitedly filled us in on Notre Dame’s overtime win over Florida State while my aunt told us about getting skybox seats to watch the Florida Gators. I’ve never been the most knowledgeable college football fan, but I have fond childhood memories of doing the Gator chomp while wearing orange and blue at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Going to college in northern Virginia, I was mystified to learn that most of my friends from the rest of the country cared more about the NFL than college sports.
