Boren to be Wild
This column is to appear in the Thursday, Sept. 21, 2006, edition of The Maryville Daily Forum. It is with reflection of the near-death Sooner Nation, which has plunged itself off the tallest building in Norman because of referees' calls last weekend in Oregon. Read on, McDuff:
David Boren, president at the University of Oklahoma, is a former senator and governor for the Sooner State.
David Boren is also a numskull.
For those not in the know, Boren sent a letter Monday to Big 12 Commissioner Kevin Weiberg, calling the officiating at last Saturday's Oklahoma-Oregon football game an injustice. He also wanted the game stricken from the record books.
The Sooners were screwed in the final minutes of the game in the Northwest, where Pacific-10 officials called. Two particular calls — an onside kick and a pass-interference penalty that both went Oregon's way and helped lead the Ducks to a 34-33 victory — were the target of Boren's fire.
Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops called the officiating blunders unacceptable and inexcusable.
"It is truly sad and deeply disappointing that members of our football team should be deprived of the outcome of the game that they deserved because of an inexcusable breakdown in officiating," Boren wrote in his letter to Weiberg.
Sad and disappointing — the mantra of the Sooners faithful for this season and years to come.
They're still griping about the officiating in the OU-Texas Tech game from last year, so know that this will hang on the edge of lunacy for many months to come.
Bulletin, folks. This was just a game.
In the last month, we've honored the five-year anniversary of 9/11 and looked toward the New Orleans area as we've remembered the South in its trials and tribulations from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Now some yahoo who sits in a comfy chair in the biggest office in Norman, Okla., wants to tell us the injustices of a college football game. I think priorities have run amok amongst the Sooner Nation.
But that's been a long time for those who have been there. I spent six of the last seven years in Oklahoma, working for a newspaper that covered the Sooners football as if it were second only to God. It's idiocy at its finest.
Gordon Riese, the replay official who botched the calls up in the booth, has received death threats and has had an unsettling look at life after Saturday.
It's only a football game.
If you want to know what is sad and disappointing in the world of sports, look no further than Duquesne University, where five members of its basketball team were shot after a school dance over the weekend. Look no further than Oklahoma State University, which lost 10 members of its basketball team's family five-plus years ago in a Colorado plane crash.
What's really sad and disappointing about Oklahoma's loss to Oregon is the egregious overreaction of the Sooners faithful, their football coach and their university president.
It's only a football game.
FOOTBALL FANATIC
I love sports, and I love being a sports fan. I even love rooting against rivals — I cheer for the Oakland Raiders' and Denver Broncos' foes.
In my former life, I spent my weekends reading millions of words written about sports as an editor for a large daily newspaper.
It became a drain on my sporting nature, especially during football season. Mine wasn't the glamorous, sideline reporting sports gig. I was a desk jockey, handling the editing and design for the reporters and photographers on the scene.
Rarely did I get the chance to sit down for an entire Saturday and enjoy college football, even though I played college football 20 years ago. But the last two falls have been spectacular. I moved into a different world. One day not long ago, I parted company with my wife and 4-year-old to enter "Man's World," where football was on the screen and testosterone was in the air. No Spongebob in this part of the house, I proclaimed. No "Dancing with the Stars."
My wife is still learning what it's like to live with a football nut, oftentimes laughing at my intensity as I sit on the edge of my seat during a Chiefs game. She giggles at my obsession, and rightfully so — I'm currently testing the waters as to which shirt I should wear during a Chiefs game since the Tony Gonzalez jersey seems to be a loser.
But when the clock has wound down and the game has ended — and sometimes, after a minute or two, when the anger subsides — I go about my day, loving my girls and carrying on with life in general.
Because with age comes reality, and the reality is, it's just a football game.
David Boren, president at the University of Oklahoma, is a former senator and governor for the Sooner State.
David Boren is also a numskull.
For those not in the know, Boren sent a letter Monday to Big 12 Commissioner Kevin Weiberg, calling the officiating at last Saturday's Oklahoma-Oregon football game an injustice. He also wanted the game stricken from the record books.
The Sooners were screwed in the final minutes of the game in the Northwest, where Pacific-10 officials called. Two particular calls — an onside kick and a pass-interference penalty that both went Oregon's way and helped lead the Ducks to a 34-33 victory — were the target of Boren's fire.
Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops called the officiating blunders unacceptable and inexcusable.
"It is truly sad and deeply disappointing that members of our football team should be deprived of the outcome of the game that they deserved because of an inexcusable breakdown in officiating," Boren wrote in his letter to Weiberg.
Sad and disappointing — the mantra of the Sooners faithful for this season and years to come.
They're still griping about the officiating in the OU-Texas Tech game from last year, so know that this will hang on the edge of lunacy for many months to come.
Bulletin, folks. This was just a game.
In the last month, we've honored the five-year anniversary of 9/11 and looked toward the New Orleans area as we've remembered the South in its trials and tribulations from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Now some yahoo who sits in a comfy chair in the biggest office in Norman, Okla., wants to tell us the injustices of a college football game. I think priorities have run amok amongst the Sooner Nation.
But that's been a long time for those who have been there. I spent six of the last seven years in Oklahoma, working for a newspaper that covered the Sooners football as if it were second only to God. It's idiocy at its finest.
Gordon Riese, the replay official who botched the calls up in the booth, has received death threats and has had an unsettling look at life after Saturday.
It's only a football game.
If you want to know what is sad and disappointing in the world of sports, look no further than Duquesne University, where five members of its basketball team were shot after a school dance over the weekend. Look no further than Oklahoma State University, which lost 10 members of its basketball team's family five-plus years ago in a Colorado plane crash.
What's really sad and disappointing about Oklahoma's loss to Oregon is the egregious overreaction of the Sooners faithful, their football coach and their university president.
It's only a football game.
FOOTBALL FANATIC
I love sports, and I love being a sports fan. I even love rooting against rivals — I cheer for the Oakland Raiders' and Denver Broncos' foes.
In my former life, I spent my weekends reading millions of words written about sports as an editor for a large daily newspaper.
It became a drain on my sporting nature, especially during football season. Mine wasn't the glamorous, sideline reporting sports gig. I was a desk jockey, handling the editing and design for the reporters and photographers on the scene.
Rarely did I get the chance to sit down for an entire Saturday and enjoy college football, even though I played college football 20 years ago. But the last two falls have been spectacular. I moved into a different world. One day not long ago, I parted company with my wife and 4-year-old to enter "Man's World," where football was on the screen and testosterone was in the air. No Spongebob in this part of the house, I proclaimed. No "Dancing with the Stars."
My wife is still learning what it's like to live with a football nut, oftentimes laughing at my intensity as I sit on the edge of my seat during a Chiefs game. She giggles at my obsession, and rightfully so — I'm currently testing the waters as to which shirt I should wear during a Chiefs game since the Tony Gonzalez jersey seems to be a loser.
But when the clock has wound down and the game has ended — and sometimes, after a minute or two, when the anger subsides — I go about my day, loving my girls and carrying on with life in general.
Because with age comes reality, and the reality is, it's just a football game.
posted by Teditor at 3:35 PM
1 Comments:
Perhaps you can understand Govenor/Senator/OU President Boren's problems with reality if you remember that he, as head of the Senate Select Committee On Intelligence, sponsored the hiring of George Tenet to head the CIA.
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