Way before the Giro, Tour, and Vuelta, I was first and foremost a football fan. Born in Toledo, Ohio naturally The Diety of My Choice made me a Buckeye fan. Good time to be a fan because my first memories of all time are of Archie Griffin stuffing the ball over the line to beat the Michigan Wolverines as time drained off the clock. Buckeye for Archie, I'd always think. But where would he put it on his helmet, being already covered from previous good deeds during the season. Later I moved to Michigan, where I was surrounded by those poor disillusioned Michigan fans. God made the ball round, man turned it aerodynamic, and everyone pities the Wolverine football fan. I tried to embrace the professional game, but I realized early in my life that the NFL can give a crap about the fanatic that is willing to get off their couch and actually buy a seat in the stadium. When we moved to California in 1976, my dad sprung for four seats to the Oakland Raiders. I went to every game in 1976 except for the Monday Night game as my mother took my ticket. I mean, she hates football, but she had to go to the Monday Night game. I'm still bitter. Anyway, I knew every player and could tell you their alma mater, stats, everything. They won the Super Bowl that year crushing the Minnesota Vikings in Pasadena. I went to both playoff games. We beat the Patriots with the clock running out. I feared the Pats as they were the only team to put a loss on us that year. It was a great game, but the Raiders prevailed. In came the Pittsburgh Steelers with Bradshaw and Swan, and LC Greenwood, Jack Hamm, Mean Joe Greene, Rocky Blier, et al. Someone hung a banner up in one of the endzones that showed Mean Joe, LC and Jack Hamm peeking out from behind a shower curtain with the tag line, "The Steel Curtain Doesn't Look So Tough." Anyway, the Raiders rolled them and it was on to Pasadena. A boy couldn't have been happier. The next year, the Raiders fared well, but didn't quite have the same spark and they bowed out of the playoffs early. The crowd back then was fantastic. We sat in one of the endzones with the same people for every game. Next to us was a Vietnamese couple. We got to know each other to the point that we would end up sharing food with each other that we brought to the game. It was my first experience with Vietnamese food, and I loved it. About the second or third quarter a guy would stand up and start singing a song to which the chorus was, "GO RAIDERS GO!!" If you remember the size of the beers that they used to sell, you'll recall the thing looked like a popcorn bucket that you get at the movies. This guy would be feeling no pain after draining the thing, pop the bottom out of it and use it as an impromptu megaphone. Classic. He could get the whole endzone singing that song to the point that it would eventually take over the stadium. At no time did I witness a fight, stabbing, beating or similar. Always friendly ribbing of anyone wearing the other teams colors, but never anything violent. How everything has changed. So a few years later, the Raiders committed to playing one more season in Oakland before they were to move to LA. The ticket agency called one Sunday morning to see if my dad would renew the tickets. There were rumors that Al Davis was waffling and that they may stay after all. I was optomistic, my father, however was not. With the whole family around the breakfast table, we listened to the one sided coversation. After my father politely listened to the sales pitch, my father finally began to talk and my hopes for Sunday afternoon hinged on the next words he spoke. He said, "I'll tell you what. I'll renew those tickets, but you have to promise me one thing," he said to the agent. "You have to promise me that you will personally shove every one of those tickets up Al Davis' ass." With that he hung up the phone and sat back down to finish his breakfast, never looking up. The family hung in the silence. Look around the NFL, and you'll see that the team in Tennessee came from Houston who has a new team. Phoenix came from St. Louis who came from LA. Cleveland went to Baltimore who went to Indianapolis. Even our Jokeland Raiders went to LA and rebounded back to Jokeland who is being sued by the team. Confused yet? If you aren't, you've got the right IQ to be a fan.

Anyway, the college product, although scummy on some levels, remains true to the school and town where it is located. The Wisconsin Badgers will always be in Madison filling up an 80,000 seat Camp Randall stadium. It seems a bit more meaningful somehow. The ball gets kicked off tonight and ain't that grand? This weekend features some pretty good games. Cal travels to Tennessee to take on a traditional SEC powerhouse. Back when Cal was pathetic, my friend played rugby with some players who went against the Vols that year. They recalled how after the first play one of the Tennessee Volunteers offered a meaty paw to help them off the ground and uttered, "it's just such a pity that you boys had to travel so far to get whipped up by a bunch of country boys." With that, Tennessee put a lick on 'em. This weekend could be entirely different. This could come down to something late, and watch for Cal's head coach Jeff Tedford to outwit Tennessee's Phillip Fulmer. Fulmer probably has the better athletes, but can't hold a candle to Tedford when it comes to coaching the game. Cross right, flood left, 83 block on two...ready...break!!

Johnny GoFast