I just wanted to acknowledge something that we haven't really talked about here: the honest-to-god trauma we are experiencing as fans.
I don't want to overstate our pain here, but after yesterday's press conference from the former players, I was just exhausted, and starting to feel pretty broken. Sports are intended to be an irrational escape from real life awfulness. When the worst thing in my life was my football team going 1-11 and I have to make local plans for New Year's...thumbs up emoji. At a time when we should ideally be guessing W-L record or starting QB, we're realizing we may have been worshipping a fake deity who may have set the program further back than he took it, and there is scar tissue on the program (due to the faults of MANY) that will never go away. I know versions of this probably happen everywhere, but it doesn't even really matter, does it?
For many people here, like me, NU football is a part of our known identities - people know us as the Northwestern fan in their lives...our phones blow up with texts whenever we win the big games, and now they're blowing up over "what do you think about Fitz?" For most of my life I've considered NU the exceptional program with integrity, and now I have to ask if I should have taken the easy road and been rooted for Ohio State this whole time (not really, but you get it). The only sport I watch is college football, and the only team I care about is Northwestern. And now here we are.
So I don't necessarily want to turn this into a support group, but just acknowledge we're all in the same sad boat.
I don't want to overstate our pain here, but after yesterday's press conference from the former players, I was just exhausted, and starting to feel pretty broken. Sports are intended to be an irrational escape from real life awfulness. When the worst thing in my life was my football team going 1-11 and I have to make local plans for New Year's...thumbs up emoji. At a time when we should ideally be guessing W-L record or starting QB, we're realizing we may have been worshipping a fake deity who may have set the program further back than he took it, and there is scar tissue on the program (due to the faults of MANY) that will never go away. I know versions of this probably happen everywhere, but it doesn't even really matter, does it?
For many people here, like me, NU football is a part of our known identities - people know us as the Northwestern fan in their lives...our phones blow up with texts whenever we win the big games, and now they're blowing up over "what do you think about Fitz?" For most of my life I've considered NU the exceptional program with integrity, and now I have to ask if I should have taken the easy road and been rooted for Ohio State this whole time (not really, but you get it). The only sport I watch is college football, and the only team I care about is Northwestern. And now here we are.
So I don't necessarily want to turn this into a support group, but just acknowledge we're all in the same sad boat.
