Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Ole Miss Home Game #2

Moral victories, and statistics, are for losers.

My Rebels beat the point spread against Florida last weekend, but I have learned from long experience not to bet on, for or against, Ole Miss. They will give a top ranked team fits one weekend and then sruggle to eke out a win against a cellar dweller the next. I, like most Rebel fans, trooped into Vaught-Hemeingway Stadium on Saturday, expecting to see a 70 point Florida spectacle. But my Rebels kept it agonizingly close throughout the game, the stands stayed packed, and we held out hope for a third upset of Florida in three meetings. Tebow and company were too much, however. But I gotta be proud of the large percentage of Rebel fans who stood and cheered for the Rebels as they left the field 30-24 losers.

The Air Force put on the best show of the day, though. Prior to kick-off, the parachute team from the Air Force Academy jumped in and delivered the game ball. Then, right as the last note of the Star Bangled Banner was fading in diminishing stadium echoes, two F-16s roared overhead from end zone to end zone. One of the pilots was announced as an Ole Miss grad, and I assume it was his idea to make a second pass of the stadium at an even lower altitude, this time passing over the field sideline to sideline. They cleared the top of the stands by less than a hundred feet.

Miss Brenda turned to me as the roar faded, "Are they allowed to fly that low?"

"Nope. But I'm not going to report them."

One of these days, though, some jet jock is going to bring it just a little too low, catch a bump of turbulent air, and splatter himself among a crowd. That'll make 9-11 look tame by comparison.

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