“ALL RISE!!! Court is now in session. The honorable Bucket Hat King LJ tha Fiasco presiding. Please be seated and come to order”
Good day folks. As soon as the University of Louisville baseball team records their 27th out, the wait begins. That long agonizing wait that carries from June all the way until Labor Day weekend. Unless you have an interesting hobby, or a planned summer vacation we all have fell victim to that wait. I’m referring to that wait for Cardinal Football.
Each summer we practice the same ritual as we wait for game day to arrive. We try to shore up any unfinished projects around the house or hit the gym and lose a couple of pounds so we can be in shape to climb Denny Crum overpass and the stadium steps. We attempt to watch all the past season’s games on YouTube and our DVR but only if the Cards won, watching losses is torture enough. We surf the message boards trying our best to read every post as well as come up with an interesting topic just to pass the time. We depend on guys like CrumsRevenge, UofLNunn and Tatville to get us through with their fan-made videos recapping each big win.
We have watched the comeback against that team down the road and the Music City Bowl so many times that we can recite both games word for word. We continuously check with Fan Outfitters to see if they have new merchandise because you can’t keep wearing your Sugar Bowl t-shirt to all the home games. We call Ramsey and Rutherford’s show so much they know us on a first name basis. We harass Steve Jones and Jeff Greer about football recruits to the point where we are scared they may block us on Twitter if we ask one more question. We constantly refresh our timeline on Facebook to see if Cardinal Sports Zone has posted anything. We call our friends to let them know we saw Lamar Jackson at Rally’s. Minutes later we call them back to let them know that it wasn’t actually him.
We sit back and watch that team 70 miles East of us win the National Championship in football each summer and then laugh in the fall as their season folds like a cheap lawn chair at a tailgate. We ask MasterDroo to tweet his insanely long “Trainhorn” because we miss seeing it on our timelines on Saturday’s. We watch the news each day just to see if there was any mention of UofL football…… hell UofL anything….by late July we are desperate fans. We play the what-if game and end up getting pissed off all over again at William Gay for jumping offside, Kerry Rhodes for dropping a gimme interception, Blake Bortles for being poised, Central Florida for joining the AAC, Wesley Woodyard for his awkward fall on Bush’s leg, and Stevie Johnson for getting “loose”.
But when we finally park our car in the Green Lot before walking to PJCS. When we’re cramped in the tunnel waiting for the team to roll down those steps giving high fives and smiles to all the fans. When we are standing on the Party Deck and overlooking the field as the team warms up. When we can literally taste the ice cold beer while it’s being poured, and smell the pizza leaving the oven. When we see the guy in the crunch zone holding the letter D in one hand and the white picket fence in the other. When we hear Sean Moth’s voice over the speaker system. When we hear that 18 year old Marching band member playing “Call to the Post”. When we see the team coming down that long hallway before running through the white smoke. When we damn near break our arm signaling CARDS-FIRST-DOWN. When we boo a local meteorologist. And when we hear that sweet, magical sound of a train horn after the Cardinals score a touchdown, only then do we realize the wait was and always will be worth it.
Court adjourned!! (Bangs gavel)
Great read! Let’s go Cards!!!
Damn you for getting me worked up like this. Now I have that train horn in my head. I need to get work done so I can take off Friday.