Utah Football

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend my first ever University of Utah football game. Even though I'm an Aggie fan (Go Aggies!), I quickly accepted when Kelly invited me, even though the invitation came with a warning, "you cannot wear anything blue". Now, this proved difficult after scouring through my closet, as I quickly discovered that all of my sweatshirts are either blue or have USU on them. I had nothing red to wear. After quite some time, I finally found a brown sweater, and hoping that would do, I was on my way to see what all the fuss about Utah Football was.

We arrived at the game about 30 minutes before it began and got settled in. I had not been to the Rice-Eccles Stadium before, and after seeing the size of it, and hearing that it held 45,000 people, I thought there was no way it would fill up. Oh, how wrong I was. There ended up being 45,587 in attendance, and it was the third-largest crowd and the 12th sellout in Rice-Eccles Stadium history.

I had clearly under-estimated the dedication of Utah fans. This was the first home game of the season, and the fans were ready to be dazzled and inspired by the Utes football team. As the game got started, I looked around and saw a sea of red. It felt like I was the only one in the entire stadium with nothing red to display. There were red hats, sweatshirts, visors, t-shirts, chairs, balloons, blankets, posters, and flags. It was then that I realized why it would have been disastrous to wear blue to a Utah football game and I was grateful for Kelly's warning.

As the game progressed, I began to understand that Utah Football is about the excitement of the game, the thrill of watching a completed pass or a defensive tackle, the loud boo'ing of a bad call by the referees, the singing of the fight song, and the shouting of 'Go Utes'. It was a time for 45,000+ people to come together on a beautiful fall evening and cheer on their team, their players, and the game of football itself.

By the end of the game I was chanting 'Go Utes' along with everyone else and adding my voice to those who were yelling at the referees or those who were cheering for the team. I had forgotten how much I love football and I realized that it doesn't matter to me if the team is wearing red or blue, it's all about the love of the game. Unless, of course, the Utes are playing the Aggies, then it's definitely all about the blue.