Watching LSU’s football team live and die, rise and fall and soar and sigh over and over and over again reminds me a little about life.
It’s not comfortable being a Tiger fan. It’s hard work. It’s demanding. It can be like life. It requires love and sacrifice and patience. There’s suffering involved. There’s no getting around it.
Through one loss and two wins, there’s been more frustration than elation.
Used to be that way being a fan of the New Orleans Saints, but no more. Not in the first two games of the season anyway. The Saints, drifters in a sea of mediocrity since quarterback Drew Brees retired, have been nearly flawless in the first two games of this season, first against Carolina then against Dallas. One (Carolina) was supposedly a cupcake, the other (Dallas) was supposedly a sizzlin’ sirloin.
The Saints chewed up and spit out both with aplomb, toothpick ever at the ready. Over the first two games, the Saints have scored 91 points. Only two other teams in NFL history have scored as many points in the first two games – the 1971 Cowboys and the 2009 Saints – and both of those teams went on to win the Super Bowl. Running back Alvin Kamara is looking like his old self, or even like a version of Walter Payton.
Back to watching LSU football. Call it an exercise in sadism. It’s like getting in the saddle and riding Bodacious – or trying to ride him – for eight seconds. Granted, if you can do it, it’s a thrill of a lifetime, but if you don’t, it’s a basket of bruises and breaks and it’s more scary than the prices at the grocery store.
Since Brian Kelly has been the Tigers’ commander-in-beef, the Tigers have fallen behind in 21 of 30 games and rallied to win 13 times. This comes from the research of friend and former sports scribe Nico Van Thyn, bred in Shreveport and buttered most of his newspaper career in Fort Worth, Texas.
When the Tigers fell behind South Carolina, 17-0, Saturday, I confess I quit watching for a while. A Tiger fan friend from Pensacola texted: “Am I required to watch this?”
I feared a massacre, so I retreated to my back yard to take out my frustrations on the fringes of the yard with a weed eater. My wife interrupted me at one point to tell me LSU just had a first-and-goal and came away with NOTHING (her emphasis)! I was thankful to have missed that and preserve a few shreds of sanity.
I returned for the second half, after being reassured it was at least a game again. I rode one bull after another until game’s end, when, thanks to a missed South Carolina field goal that could’ve forced the game into overtime, LSU prevailed, 36-33. Rather than rejoice, I was more inclined to breathe a sigh of relief. That win was more like chicken soup than champagne.
Brian Kelly and his staff are still searching for a defense that can be reliable and dependable. It has been as hard to find as a rotary phone or an Underwood typewriter. Giving up scoring runs of 60 yards or more has become a time-honored tradition right up there with the pre-game performance of the Golden Band from Tigerland.
Next up is a home game against unranked UCLA, a team that lost to Indiana, 42-13, in its opening game and barely beat Hawaii, 16-13. It will be televised by ABC, which apparently is banking on yet another Chamber of Horrors Ride involving LSU to keep viewers hooked.