FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Hey now. This past weekend I filmed at the University of Colorado, but before I even get into that, let me first just say that Boulder (with apologies to Athens, Ga, which I didn't get to see much of) is the nicest, most attractive college town I've been to so far. I'm very easily impressed, so a clean town with good food and minimal humidity easily wins me over. The game (vs Oklahoma) had an early kickoff, which is less than thrilling when one begins filming roughly four hours before gametime. See, I set up my excuses immediately to cover all possible future criticism.

Friday started interestingly enough. While waiting for my flight, I walked into a newsstand in the Delta terminal at LAX and noticed enough huge guys wearing strange black USC track suits with small numbers on the back to make me realize that I was standing near John David Booty, Chauncey Washington, and Mark Sanchez as I was trying to reach a magazine. I talked to a couple of them for a minute or two, they seemed nice, and preceded to almost miss their flight to Seattle. Oops.

(I didn't take pictures. I have no problem taking pictures of unsuspecting people at tailgates, but it felt weird and desperate to take pictures of them in the airport. You'll just have to take my word for it.) 

Downtown Boulder. We ate at a sports bar called The Lazy Dog. I noticed that people liked eating and drinking on the rooves of restaurants and bars, so we did the same. For the record, I had a stellar patty melt. You must care so much. 

Game day. Picturesque campus. I took this picture while my lukewarm hotel breakfast was wreaking havoc on my system. This explains why I didn't really eat or drink all that much at the tailgates. Ok, I promise, no more unneccessary personal  background details for at least five captions.

The trailer containing Ralphie, the (female) buffalo that is the beloved Colorado mascot. The last buffalo was named Ralph, and supposedly, before that it was named Mr. Chips, which, for the record, is awesome.

Ridiculously nice stadium from the outside. I really have nothing bad to say about the stadium, although the will-call lines were pretty horrendous, if that even counts as a negative. Let's get on with it...

Get it? They were rooting for two different schools! My eyeing the Oklahoma girl was going to be my signal for who was going to win, but I can't even get that right. Oh well.

We were somehow able to get down to the field, where we promptly realized we had no idea what was going on in the game. Chip (not a real buffalo) seemed like a friendly guy (or girl).

These are the Colorado dancers. Not to be confused with...

...Colorado cheerleaders. Frankly, I saw minimal difference in what they were doing, but to be fair, I wasn't paying all that much attention to technique.

Great student section. Even "Guy Inexplicably Wearing a Barrel and Suspenders" showed up, which is alway a good sign of things to come. 

I look odd, and for that I apologize. I'm a terrible picture-taker. Note to future mascots: please try to make me look as little like an idiot as possible. I blame you, Chip, I blame you.

Much to my disappointment, nobody slipped and rolled down the end zone ramp. This, of course, includes me, which was shocking in its own right. 

If only CU at Northern Telluride existed and had a good enough football team to warrant giant flag touchdown celebrations. If only...

It may be (and probably is) just me, but wow is it difficult not to dive into a stationary pylon, especially when it's standing there waiting for it. I have problems.

For some reason, I'm feeling overwhelmingly compelled to buy Nike shoes and apparel. Strange... 

Cowboy Trombone Guy seems unhappy with me taking his picture behind Sparkly McBraStrap. Too bad, CTG, too bad.

(Note: I left in the middle of the game because I completely underestimated the Buffaloes and wanted to go watch Oregon  beat Cal. Yes, it appears that I very clearly made a bad choice, I know.)

That night we went to The Sink, a famous local pizza place that's been by campus in Boulder forever. Supposedly, Robert Redford used to work there as a janitor. My guess is that that was a long time ago - at least five, hell, maybe ten years ago, anyway. What can I say, the man loves cleaning.

Top notch. Go there immediately.

Goodbye Colorado. That John Denver is most certainly not full of it.

Email:

CFTourGuy@gmail.com 

Links:

The College Football Tour Guide (last year's episodes)

Windows Media Player 9 (for Mac)

Flip4Mac (for Mac)

If you're still having any problems viewing video, there should be a new option watching episodes (and other SI.com content) announced very soon. Everything will be better soon.

Until next week...