Where's your seat?

The big game is on, and you have a decision to make, where to watch the game.  3 options stare you in the face, go to the game and see it in person.  Head to the local sports bar and watch it with throngs of other fellow fans, or watch it in your man cave at home.  What do you do?

All 3 are great options.  First going to the game.  You are with around 70,000 fellow fans.  Tailgating, the smell of meat grilling at 7am (if you’re at a Big Ten early game) the socializing, the bean bags and tossing the ball around.  Oh and the beer.  I still get goose bumps the first time I walk up the ramp at Kinnick Stadium each year.  I’ve been to over 100 Iowa games, loved going to everyone, well maybe not the 1990 Iowa-Ohio State BOBBY FRICKEN OLIVE!  But I really miss my season tickets.  What I don’t miss, the 2 hour drive back home from Iowa City.  About Grinnell to Baxter on I-80 I just dread the drive.  And even getting into Altoona I just wanna be home. 

If you don’t have a ticket,  what to do?  Go to a sports bar?  Most sports bars on big game days are packed, especially on NFL Sundays and Saturdays if your team is good.  I know a lot of Hawk fans that go to sports bars and watch.  Last night for the Bears-Packers game I went to 34’s in Ankeny for my first game at a sports bar in a while.  Had a blast with the Des Moines Sports Freaks and their watch party.  Helped that the game was great, and the Bears won!  You get to hang out with friends and other fans in front of plenty of others.  The food and beer always tastes better when you’re not cleaning it up too right?  And you don’t have the long drive home.

This isn't my man cave - fyi

Then there is home.  The ManCave!  How many of you dream of getting your house, and right away think of what is my man cave going to be like?  How big of TV?  A bar? Surround sound, and the perfect seating.  What memorabilia to put up in it.  How much more can I buy!  I have mine (though it’s getting reduced a bit).  I have all my Hawkeye garb around.  My Bears stuff and Cubs stuff up too.  My Hayden Fry bobble head next to JoePa and Woody Hayes.  The Ditka’s table cloth up and my authentic Kinnick Stadium replica.  Oh and my 42in wide screen with surround sound.  (insert Tim the tool man Taylor grunts).  I’m home, I just have to turn on the tub, and sit down and relax.  Got my food cheaper than at the bar.  6 beers for the cost of 2.  Oh, and the DVR!  Rewind, Oh and the DVR!  Also if I want to hear the announcers I can hear them most the time when I want too.  And no line at the bathroom.  Plus I get to brainwash, I mean watch with my son too.  I cheer he cheers, I swear he swears (we are working on this).  Then there’s also no drive home, and you can also flip to any other game you want too.  Plus there.

You can probably see which one I prefer now.  Staying at home.  But don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the other two also, a lot.  And if anyone has a ticket they wanna give up for the Iowa-Penn State game, hello!  Hawk fan here!  If not, I’ll be watching at home with my son.  His first game he watched with me was the 2008 Iowa-Penn State game!  Pretty memorable.  So hopefully he will be 3-0 lifetime vs. PSU after this week. 

So where’s your seat at?

Who are you?

Ok, so this post will probably get me called a Cyclone or something worse, if there is something worse?  But I’ve heard it from friends and read it and well it is getting under my skin.  Now I’m not directing this at Hawk fans directly but all fans, mostly college football fans since the NFL is a different breed.  But I’m an Iowa fan, bleed black and gold, and well this is what I see being in Iowa and being around Hawkeye fans, so here we go.

Iowa lost.  We got beat.  The sun rose Sunday morning, there is a game on Saturday.  The season ISN’T OVER!

Under Coach Ferentz we’ve risen to levels not seen before, no offense to Hayden Fry, but we’ve been super consistent, in the top tier in Big Ten standings, January Bowl games, but we are not Ohio State.  We are not Oklahoma.  We are not Texas or USC or Alabama.  Those schools, yea 1 loss, season over.  But please wake up, realize we are Iowa.  We aren’t competing for National Titles every year.  We come close once every maybe 10-15 years (see 1985, 2002). 

But fans are crying for coaches heads to roll, they think the season is over and screw going to the games.  Are you serious?  WAKE UP!  Get your head out of the sand, and realize who you are.  You waited like 200 some days for the season to start and your ready to end it?

Now, I will say when I was in High School I was probably more like this, I’d pick Iowa Big Ten Champs yearly, the Cubs and Bears winning championships every year too.  I’ve woken up.  My expectations yearly are 8-4 and get me to the Alamo Bowl (now Gator Bowl since the Big Ten lost the Alamo)  and anything else is just icing.  The seasons actually have come to be more enjoyable sincee 2000 when I’ve done that.  The win over Penn State was sweeter in 2000.  The 2001 season was great.  The 2002 -2004 seasons were like a huge cake for me.  We lost games but it was AMAZING for me being a fan.  Were 05-07 sucky, yes, but I loved seeing the Hawks run out there though we struggled.  Then came 2008, your damn right I enjoyed every minute of that year, even the losses.  2009, the same. 

Now it’s 2010.  Did I expect big things from the Hawks?  Yes, I picked them to go to the Fiesta Bowl.  Did the loss sting?  Yes, just like the loss to Arizona State in 2004.  But don’t let it ruin your season.  Don’t let it ruin your week.  The loss to Arizona showed me a couple things.  1-Our special teams suck.  2-We can’t dig a hole and try to come back.  3-I liked what I saw in the whole game, especially the 2^nd half.  We will be ok.  It’s a non-conference loss.  We are still 0-0 in the Big Ten, 8 games left.  We’ll be ok.  Have faith in Coach Ferentz.

My basketball coach in high school never worried about the rankings or State when practice started.  The goal, win the conference.  With that good things will come. 

Ok fellow Hawks, you can rip me now.  I’m going to enjoy the rest of the season as much as I enjoyed  it when we were 2-0 and #9. 

Tickets? Who needs tickets?

Anyone else notice the empty seats in all the tournament games yesterday? New Orleans hardly had anyone on the upper bowl. Oklahoma City had a lot of empties. How many times have cities hosted the first round that keep getting bids from the NCAA? It's almost like the Braves fans who don't show up for 1st round games after 15 straight playoff appearances. Then there's cities like Omaha that sell it out. Why does the NCAA have to be so snobby about what towns get bids? Give it to some fresh blood. Des Moines has a great facility in Wells Fargo Arena, that would sell out for a 1st Round NCAA tourney site and a Wrestling National Championships easy. C'mon, NCAA, pull your head...or do you need to see more pictures like the one above?