The Original Plan Was To Make "The Shirt 2006" Rainbow Colored, But The Administration Frowned Upon It

Do you know what sucks? Getting old. And I say getting old both in the common sense way that we all get old simply by the virtue that we cannot become young (if I was a philosophy major, I could spread that statement out over two hundred pages before finally summarizing it in the final paragraph) and in the sense that I, on occasion, feel really old.

Today, I’m cruising Deadspin – as all sports fans definitely should – and there’s a picture of Greg Oden dancing with some white chick at a party. Good for Greg Oden, future NBA lottery pick, Big Ten freshman of the year and owner of a fine Escalade provided by the Buckeyes boosters, but then it sort of hit me: Oden is in the same graduating class as my sister. That’s weird. Really weird. Combine that with the fact I’m four years old than Rihanna, slightly older than Real World crazy Svetlana and Willa Holland isn’t even fifteen yet and I almost, sort of, feel inclined to not post the picture of Oden out of some sort of humility.

Screw it.



Of course, as we get older, spring time comes and that leads to spring football and the Blue-Gold game. I’m not a big fan of preseasons, especially the parts of them that take place over four months before the season starts, but it should be an interesting weekend around here. The Shirt 2006 gets released tomorrow at noon, and I’m excited to see how the campus handles this one.

(For those of you that don’t go to Notre Dame, the concept of a t-shirt causing a controversy must be unfathomable to you. Let’s just say the op-ed portion of our student paper – the student-paper of a top twenty university – was dedicated for months over what color the shirt students wear to football games should be. True story.

That being said, The Shirt 2005 was a piece of shit. That’s an irrefutable fact.)

Then Saturday is the Blue-Gold game, where we get to see if James Aldridge really is like Cadillac Williams and if there’s a third wide-receiver just waiting to emerge behind Rhema and Samardjiza and get Brady his Heisman and the university a national championship. Who else would have a fantastic preview for you other than the geniuses at BlueGraySky, so check out the specifics, such as rosters, there.

I almost wish something looks off on Saturday, just so the uncontainable hype train barreling into next season settles down. Kirk already declared that USC could be 11-0 when the number one team in the country, Notre Dame, comes rolling into town. It’s April. Stop it. Please. It’s flattering, but somewhat terrifying.

(And yeah, rumor has it Gameday is going to be joining us in Atlanta for the Notre Dame/Georgia Tech game. Of course, if the gang showing up in the Steel City last year was any indication, things should go very well.)

In the bad news department for next season, Penn State will not be offering students tickets to their away beat down in Notre Dame Stadium September 9th. Dill informed me that only Nittany Lion Club (think Sorin Society) members will be receiving tickets to the Irish home opener, which doesn’t bode well for the rematch in State College in 2007. Considering that Beaver Stadium seats about twenty-thousand more than Notre Dame Stadium, you’d think that would help matters out, but you must consider that they also have a student body thirty-thousand larger, so we’re back to square one. Hopefully I’ll be able to scrounge up a few tickets, but the huge caravan rolling in, burning the Bryce Jordan Center to the ground and watching Notre Dame begin their road defense of the 2006 national title isn’t looking good if the hype for this season’s contest is any indicator.

That being said, I’ll just convey to all Penn State students who are feeling like their chances of going to the game and watching Anthony Morelli get his leg broken have just fluttered away what I said to my dad: Be a man, scalp yourself a ticket and rock out in the Sea of Whatever Color Shirt We End Up Choosing. It’s going to be a rocking time.





*

Also, for those of you still watching The OC -- it’s sort of getting better again, I promise, and plus, Grey’s is always in reruns – our beloved Anna returns tonight as the kiddies go college visiting. If I didn’t have so much work to do this weekend around football and t-shirts, I’d rewatch all of her Season One episodes, but that’ll just have to wait until study days.



Coming up, we’ll take a quick gander at the NBA playoff picture and maybe I can have Rob write us up his opinion on the Blue-Gold Game, as he is much wiser than myself on all matters of Fighting Irish football and would make a fun profanity-laced and Kevin White-bashing commentary.


If this picture and this article don't get you excited for the NBA playoffs, nothing will. And I don't blame you for that lack of excitement at all.