Another Thanksgiving

Here it is another bird thursday in November and I can only think of the greatest football game I ever saw, BC vs. Miami in the Orange Bowl. I remember with immense clarity watching Flutie heave that "hail mary" pass to Gerard Phelan and cement himself as one of the greatest college quarterbacks of all time and a Heisman winner. What a game.

A game like that was unique since it was the first of its kind, the day after Thanksgiving, regular weekday, and it was the only football event on at all (now there's like 10 or more) and it was on CBS (ESPN was barely on the radar screen at that point). "Flutie flushed right . . . " I remember screaming my head off when he caught it, even my father, a phelgmatic gentleman if there ever was one, got excited, he stood up from his chair and said "Oh my God, he caught it."

You can have your Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions, I'll take the Boston College Screaming Eagles and Doug Fluite eight days a week and twice on Sundays. College football has much more aura to it than professional football, there's a longer tradition, there's a prestige to it, and it's fun to watch an upset or a great comeback (something you rarely see in the professional ranks). I like college football because of the rivalries. I was watching the Michigan/Ohio State HBO special yesterday morning and I loved it! There's nothing like college rivalries. Having played college sports myself, I have a deep appreciation for them. Most folks could take it either way, but for myself, I love the theatre it creates.

I played against Boston College, well, their varsity club team, but we got to play at Alumni stadium and played them to a tie. Man, I miss playing.

So, Thanksgiving is here, but I'll always remember that Friday in 1984, the day after bird day.