Not gloating, really.

I think it's pretty clear that I am a Duck fan, and as such, I will not gloat. I told Angela that she could continue to visit TtheD just as freely as before despite our crushing win over the Beavers. I have class, and will not shove it in any Beaver faces that I see, but I do have a couple of observations about my weekend.

First of all, Thanksgiving was a really good day. We had it over at Shelia and Jim's and the company was great, the food was great, and general merriment was had by all. I am not a big fan of the holiday, but this year was good.

Clearly I was feeling my normal pre-Duck game nerves in anticipation of Saturday's game. What you have to remember is that the tradition of the Civil War game is such that it doesn't matter what kind of season either team is enjoying up to that point. All bets are off for this particular meetup. So after a day of doing nothing (and I do mean nothing) on Friday, and a little pre-game vomitting on Saturday, I holed up to watch my boys make me proud.

I make it pretty clear as well that I cannot watch this game with other people - I can barely watch the rest of the season at Barbie's. I guess texting and talking on the phone doesn't really constitute "watching the game with others" because it was a text-fest throughout. The Ducks had their issues defensively but frankly overall I was impressed. They played with heart, and even though Belotti said taking the Rose Bowl away from the Beavers was not the goal of this game for him or the team in general, SOMEthing made these boys keep pushing and pushing. Oh wait, I know what it was - the fact that we are the University of Oregon Ducks, and WE represent this state, not some agricultural college in the middle of nowhere.

I will be interested to see how many flags are flying on cars today when I hit the streets. How many people will be wearing their colors throughout the rest of the year, now that the Beavers' only hope for going to the Rose Bowl rests on UCLA beating USC (um, I don't even have to say it, do I? Go USC? No, I didn't think so). I think there were roughly 4 minutes left in regulation when the cameras showed the crowds emptying the stadium. What? The Beavers (at that point) were only 20 points down, and with 4 minutes remaining, come on, SOMETHING could have happened, right? I mean, why would you leave? Where is the support for your team down there on the field? How would you like to be a player on the field and look up and see the entire fan base collectively abandoning you? The Ducks played hard, but shit, with such fair-weather fans, the only thing left for OSU to draw from was their own strength, and that was clearly waning with so little time left.

And you know what? I think that is a big reason why I can't stand the Beavers. You rarely see a Beaver "fan" when they aren't doing well. Sure, there are probably some die hards here and there, but they stay in western Washington County where they belong. But the second they show any kind of talent, suddenly EVERYONE'S a Beaver "fan". And they try to shove it in your face and taunt and cajole and buy horrid bright orange tshirts and fly those flags and try to make us Duck fans think they are better than us. But when the chips are down, the "fans" go home. And you won't hear from them again, until the next time they have some kind of a winning season.

I'd much rather be what I am, a proud University of Oregon Fighting Duck, supporting my team no matter what, and brimming with pride and respect for a team that showed us what they are made of.

See, Angela? Not gloating. Just stating the truth. I'll be going back to my regularly scheduled blog of mindless drivel now.