GLENDALE, AZ - The Fiesta Bowl and championship game were moved this year from Arizona State's Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe to the Cardinals' new stadium in Glendale. I haven't been inside the latter yet, but I already miss Tempe. Its shops and restaurants cluster around the stadium, providing a lovely and natural meeting place for fans. In Glendale, not so much. Not even desert surrounds the ghastly stadium exterior. Only dirt. The stadium itself is Kingdome-quality ugly. A big, featureless gray pimple on mud flats.
I've seen thousands of Ohio State fans, which is no surprise. I've also seen thousands of Florida fans, which is a welcome treat after the dozen or so Miami fans who showed four years ago. There's no animosity between the schools, so the fans are mixing amicably. There's none of that nonsense I saw at the Super Bowl, with punk-ass fans looking for fights. We Buckeyes are more playful about it, often breaking into song. The Florida fans and local media are amazed at how quickly we devised (and all learned) songs like "We Don't Give a Damn for the Whole State of Florida," not realizing, of course, that all we did was substitute "Florida" for "Michigan." In Ohio, our mothers sing us that song at cribside.
The superstition survives: my game ticket is in my 2003 championship sleve, with my 2003 and Super Bowl tickets.
