Cheering for the visiting team
Call me what you may, a traveling Aggie of sorts, but I was in attendance with some 18,000 plus Red Wolves fans in Jonesboro, AR last Saturday night. My wife and parents joined me in our crusade, as we donned our true blue colors and waded into the unfamiliar red sea. I had known these people before, as I once served an LDS mission in the area, but I had never seen this side of Arkansas.
The four of us plopped down on the 50-yard line, three-and-a-half sections away from the actual visitor’s seats. We looked like a bowl full of red M&M;’s with a blue one right in the middle. The third play of the game for the Aggies, JoJo Natson ran for 31 yards, gaining the first down. This was it, the time to see what kinds of trouble a boisterous applause for my visiting hostile territory could get me into.
Standing all alone with my Aggie shirt and blue handkerchief around my neck, the homers dressed in red reared their heads and caught me off guard. They smiled.
What came across their face was a genuine, warm-hearted, “We’re glad you’re here” smile. What was once uncomfortable now confused me. For the first time in my life, cheering felt awkward. Even when Hunter Sharp pulled in a pass from Darrel Garretson for an 81 yard TD reception, jumping for joy and waving my little white USU flag felt like I had just laughed during a Sarah McLachlan animal cruelty commercial. Cheering felt like I had sneezed during a solemn moment of silence. I felt like the guy who claps way too early during the end of the Star-Spangled Banner. It was almost the equivalent of booing at the Special Olympics. It simply felt, well, awkward.
“These poor Red Wolves fans, we’re going to absolutely destroy them”, I said cautiously. “Three-time Sun Belt Conference Champions doesn’t quite mean much for a team like us.” Little did I know, this ASU football team would actually be the ones to crush my own dreams, not the other way around. 14-14 with three seconds left in the game, Utah State has the ball on the ASU 21-yard line. With Nick Diaz’s foot to put the game to rest, the offensive line breaks down and the kick is blocked.
Here’s another awkward situation; do you angrily throw your hat to the ground and yell towards the kicker, or do you say to the home crowd, who has now gone to a euphoric state of excitement, “Overtime should be fun”? Though overtime proved to be the downfall of the Aggies that night, I am one fan who states firmly that sportsmanship lives on in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
My family and I received countless well wishes of safe travels home, along with multiple “thank you’s” for coming all the way out there. Overall, I almost felt good for that little team of Red Wolves, despite the fact that a grown man howling has never sounded or will never sound cool. Moral of the story, it feels good to be classy sometimes. If some small school from southern Louisiana or a technical college from Iowa travels all the way out to Logan, think twice before heckling their committed fans. You could very well be in their shoes one day. As for any BYU fan that comes to Cache Valley, let them know loudly that Cougars don’t belong here. This will be ok.