Grapple on the Gridiron Was Awesome

I flew up from Florida this past weekend to attend the Iowa vs. Oklahoma State wrestling meet at Kinnick Stadium. Being at the football stadium, it was dubbed Grapple on the Gridiron. It was totally awesome, and I cannot recommend it enough.

Having an outdoor wrestling meet during the middle of November in Iowa is a risky proposition, but things turned out shockingly well for everyone. The weather was between 50 and 60 degrees with nothing but sunshine as there was not a cloud in the sky. Since there was also a football game featuring the #5 team in the nation taking on one of their most hated rivals, parking could have been a severe issue, but they opened up lots a little ways away from the stadium and set up a shuttle service to get fans to the meet. I was concerned it'd be a total mess, so we got there early, but things really couldn't have run smoother.

But logistics are boring. Wrestling is anything but. Still, this is not a sport with a lot of glitz and glamour. I didn't expect much showmanship in introductions, but I was pleasantly surprised. Before the wrestling began, Metallica blared from the speakers and Thomas Gilman, Iowa's 125 pound wrestler (who could kick all of our asses), came sprinting out as fire shot out of pyrotechnics like he was The Demon Kane. I was so jacked up I could have roundhoused kicked a kitten. Then the rest of the team came strolling out casually as fire shot up around them, so it had more of a corporate Kane feel to it.

But the reason wrestling is so great is that it is a one-on-one battle of wills that is truly compelling to watch. People who understand the basics of scoring in wrestling and can follow along usually become passionate about following the sport, and although it translates well to television, it is one of the most fun sports to attend live in person. The action is fast-paced, and honestly, some of the most fun moments of being in the crowd were when they were actually between action, but we'll get to that later. One of the great things about wrestling is you get to utilize the oo sound in yelling, which is the best thing to yell. I mean the Cowboys had Moose, the Packers have Kuhn, but every single wrestling meet has TWO, which is incredibly fun to yell when there is a takedown.

And luckily, Iowa had plenty of takedowns. And you bring in over 42,000 people in to a wrestling meet and give a good amount of them some alcohol in their system from tailgating, you're going to have a raucous crowd. As I said earlier, the best moments were probably in between the action. A few of the Oklahoma State wrestlers were absolutely gassed in their matches, as they had no energy and were doing everything they could to just hold on. The most hilarious moment was in the first match was when Oklahoma State's Eddie Klimara was slow to get back to the center of the mat, and Thomas Gilman gave him a shove to the back to help him get there as soon as possible. The Oklahoma State were (rightly) irate, and the Iowa crowd absolutely loved it, because Iowa is BY FAR the dirtiest team in the nation. I 100% understand why other schools hate Iowa, but they're my team, and I love them for their, uh, questionable tactics.

But the best part was definitely watching Oklahoma State wrestlers be slow to get back to the center and try to use every trick they could to stall to help them regain some energy when they were exhausted. I mean, don't get me wrong, it was frustrating to watch as an Iowa fan. But as the Iowa fans erupted in boos anytime an Oklahoma State wrestler was slow to get back to the center of the mat, it dawned on me how amazing it is that college sports allow nearly 50,000 people to tell a 20-year-old college student what a piece of shit he is for being tired. God Bless America.

Overall, it was an awesome experience. I was able to take my Dad to his first wrestling meet, and we had a great time, and I'll definitely be looking to do it again next year (and yeah, considering how huge of a success it was, I can't imagine them not trying to do it again next year). As for the results, the meet itself was back-and-forth, but there were a lot of high scoring matches, and the #4 Iowa Hawkeyes edged out the #1 Oklahoma State Cowboys by a score of 18-16. After that, I thought it was really cool that the University of Iowa let the football team use the wrestling stadium for their game against Minnesota. Iowa won that too, and the world is a better place for it.

Go Hawks!

SEC Football Sucks, But Their Crowds Are AMAZING

I went to my first SEC football game this past weekend, as I took in the Florida/Georgia game which is also known as the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. That second part is more that it is in Jacksonville, which is the most spread out city on the planet, so it makes sense that they could spread out a party pretty well. Putting the game in Jacksonville every year is a pretty sweet gig for Florida, which is only a little over an hour away, but Athens is six hours away, so even though the crowd is split, it is a way better deal for Florida.

Anyway, the setup was pretty great. We went with a Georgia alum who had a parking/barbecue lunch ticket for all of us, and the chicken/baked beans, and potato salad were all on point. I drank a bunch of Natural Light, because I am a classy adult who enjoys the finer things in life, and we went off to the game where both teams sucked, but Georgia's suckiness was more evident in that they had a bunch of costly turnovers, and Florida's defense dominated to help them win 27-3.

Honestly, the game was fairly uneventful, especially when cheering for Georgia, but man, oh man, was I glad to be sitting on the Georgia side, because there was so much drama going on around us.

Things were not going Georgia's way, and since they had a lot of hours to drink, added with the frustration of losing, tempers got heated over fairly small things. Before halftime, there were already Georgia fans threatening to fight a group of Florida fans, but the police officer came before things came to fisticuffs. But the one repeated instigator for these scrums were people standing up. People got pissed if others were standing to cheer and watch their beloved Georgia Bulldogs.

The first instance was of two old guys (at least in their 70s) who wanted to sit down and watch the game, and two young ladies were standing in front of them and cheering on the team. The first logical step would be to politely ask them to sit down, and if they didn't, well, tough shit, looks like you're standing. Instead, the old guys immediately got a police officer to threaten them with ejection from the game if they did not sit down. That was totally outrageous, and I'm pretty sure even the cop knew that he couldn't follow through on that plan, because plenty of people kept standing without ejection.

But the cop's threat was enough to get them to sit down. Unfortunately, a young gentleman in front of them was standing, which forced them to stand, which enraged the old dudes behind them. The one dude on the aisle walked down to the gentleman, told him to sit down, and when he did not, he yanked him down by his arm, and then went back to his seat. That only stopped the young guns for a while, and eventually they started standing again.

This all culminated in the other old dude yanking down the girl in front of him, which led to the girl threatening violence if he touched her again, and telling him, quite correctly, that if he wanted to sit and watch the game, he should do so from his own living room. I'm not in favor of fighting old people, but seriously, if 70 years of life experience haven't taught them how to act like adults, honestly, an ass beating might be the best thing for them.

It reminded me of a time in high school where a bunch of parents mistakenly sat in the student section, and then freaked out when I started standing and cheering when the game started. They cussed at me, while I explained that they were in a student section, and I had every right to stand. They proceeded to talk shit about me loud enough for me to hear, as I laughed in the front row. At halftime, they all got up and left, and one dude in his 40s decided to deliver a shoulder block to me, a 17-year-old who weighed all of 140 pounds (I'd like to see him mess with me now that I'm up to 150). The whole thing was childish and hilarious.

But sadly, that was not the only drama caused by sports fans standing during a sporting event. Late in the third quarter, somebody tapped me on the shoulder to get the attention of the guy who was standing in front of me. I obliged, as I knew that me ignoring them would only delay the inevitable.

Of course they wanted the guy to sit down, and he tried to reason with them that he just wanted to support his team. But they still wanted him to sit. After about five minutes, they got so frustrated that they left, but not before making a point. One of the dudes pulled out an ID card, only showed him the back of it for like a second, and said it was his handicapped card. He then said, "You may have won the battle, but you're an asshole," which was just sad. It was sad in that the guy couldn't think of a more pithy one-liner, and it was also sad that this guy thought that anyone who didn't bend to his desires was ultimately an asshole.

Now, as someone who didn't have a strong rooting interest in the game, I was able to sit back and enjoy the atmosphere of people getting worked up over really stupid shit. The game was atrocious, but the fans, the fans were astonishing. God Bless the SEC.