I don't watch much U.S. college football. I don't have any particular allegiance to any university or team, so it all operates pretty much below my radar.
For some strange reason, though, I usually tune in for the Army-Navy game.
There's something quite poignant about it -- all the young midshipmen and cadets in their greatcoats of blue and gray, cheering on athletes who, by the standards of the age, qualify as true amateurs.
Few of them will make it to the pro leagues, and the few that do owe Uncle Sam a few years labor and possibly a whole lot more in the meantime. Devotion to country is still worth something in my estimation, even if the country isn't mine.
But of course I can't let this observation pass without one of my usual sarcastic comments.
I get Navy's colors, Blue and Gold. Blue for, duh, the sea; Gold for . . . anchor chains? Sunken doubloons?
I don't get Army's colors, Black and Gold. It raises several mettlesome questions:
1. Do they not teach the fine art of camouflage anymore at West Point?
2. Is there any beer left in the fridge?
OK, so it only raises two questions. Mirabile dictu, the latter of these can be answered in the affirmative.
Which leaves Army's troubling choice of colors. Ideally, their uniforms should be Astroturf green, splashed with irregular white stripes and yard markers. Done well, all you'd see of an Army ballcarrier would be a hairy forearm, cradling a football, floating down the field.