Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Bayou Classic

Katrina and Rita have changed a lot of thing around here. But it really hits home this week, over something very insignificant in the big picture, but for Louisiana a reminder of how different things are. The week before Thanksgiving is always a big football week in South Louisiana; my beloved and #3 ranked LSU Tigers play Arkansas Friday for the “Boot” and a trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship, high school football playoffs quarterfinals, and last, but not least, the Bayou Classic, aka the Black College Super Bowl; other than Mardi Gras the wildest weekend of the year in New Orleans. Except this year the game is being played in Houston, TX, not New Orleans.

Attending the Bayou Classic was a childhood ritual for me, although I admit I have not made the trip to New Orleans for the game in probably 5 years. But it was always fun, especially considering my family is split fairly evenly between SU and Grambling grads and fans (although the past 5 years I’ve had probably 8 cousins attend Grambling). This year ESPN College Gameday will broadcast live from Houston. Now that has to be a first, Gameday broadcasting from a HBCU game. On this LSU message board I occasionally peruse there was a thread with a lot of booing and sarcastic (borderline racist) comments about this. Screw them people, I love it. Chris, Lee, and Kirk (the crew) are gonna have a great time, see some fly females, hot step show, amazing band performances. And Desmond Howard (another crew member of UMichigan heisman fame) will probably get so wild he will lose his mind. Too bad I’ll have to watch from home this year. Just make it back to the NOLA next year with Gameday again and I’ll be cool.

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