Well its Monday and I'm still sick.

[Guest_Pariah]

Its Monday morning November 28 and last night I still could not sleep right. I have been miserable, literally miserable, for about 48 hours now and now I think I have finally reached the end. Usually by now I have recovered from a loss and start loking forward to the next game but this time its different. This game ripped my heart out and I am actually considering giving up football entirely. The end of a lifetime passion, the last dose for a football junkie.

It wasn't love at first sight. My football passion all started with the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Rocky Blier. I was six years old and my father was a disabled WWII veteran who couldn’t have cared less about sports. He would look at the baseball box scores about once a year just to see how far the Indians had fallen out of first place, but that was the extent of his sports interest. Just as it is today, he was my hero and even though he never spoke about his time overseas I aligned myself with him and was always more interested in playing war than ball.

Then one day it happened. He and I were watching the news and saw a story about a veteran that had lost part of his foot in Vietnam. Blier wasn’t in a wheelchair or hobbling around some hospital, this particular war hero was playing football now. He wasn’t just playing football; he was a Pittsburgh Steeler and a Super Bowl Champion. I took up the game immediately and became a Marshall Junior High School Fighting Kitten. After a year of learning the game and becoming accustomed to verbal abuse, I had become a fullback and a defensive tackle. As a Kitten I went 0-4. It should have been a sign.

In 1987, I played football for St. Petersburg Catholic High School Barons and head coach Mike June. It was my senior year and was coach Junes’ first year as a head coach; in fact at 24 years old he was one of the youngest head coaches in state history. I think we had about 33 guys on the team, including freshman, and together we worked hard, we played ten games and were able to score a total of 17 points. We gave up about 500 points (SERIOUSLY 500) but those 17 points were the ones that mattered.

We were 0-10 when the football gods smiled upon us and Okeechobee had to forfeit its 47-0 win against us because they had played an ineligible player. 1-9. That should have been the end.

Needless to say I went back to playing war. I joined the Army and spent the next two years watching as the Army went to Panama to get Noriega, Iraq invaded Kuwait and the Army was on its way to Kuwait too. I stayed at Ft. Drum but I was finally on the right side of the rout. In those two years I packed and unpacked my gear and dreaming of the days when getting injured just meant icing my ankle. Losing didn’t really matter that much anymore and I was a casual football fan and that was about it.

Then in 1997, immediately after I took my last final exam at USF I walked across the street to the Sun Dome, met Mike Stueben and put a deposit on season tickets for USFs’ inaugural season. Since then casual has nothing to do with football.

I’ve been a rabid USF fan since then. Jumping and hugging strange men at Raymond James when an Illinois States FG attempt went wide became just another Saturday night. Personally going bankrupt while diverting my time and energy looking for a way to raise money for USFs’ proposed athletic facility. It has been a hell of a ride but now I am wondering what’s it all about Alfie.

Why do I ruin my weekend and my anniversary over a football game? Why am I still sick to my stomach 48 hours after a football game? Is there still something in my psyche that connects football and heroes that was formed in my youth? Is it a need to connect to success where success has always eluded me? How about some altruistic allegiance to my Alma Mata?

At this point I don’t care anymore it’s not worth it. I’m too old to re-up and play soldier, but I know that I need to reevaluate my passions. Does anyone know how to become a casual fan again? Is there football re-hab? How can I become that fan that says good effort after a loss and moves on? If you know how to do it please post your prescription here and I will follow it otherwise I’m going cold turkey. Football free since 11/27. ( I was at the Bucs game yesterday too)

Thanks for the forum and opportunity to vent.

[BullGrad95]

Don't bother trying to rehab.  I'm in the same boat as you are.  The loss ruined the remainder of my weekend, and all I can do is try not to think about it too much today.  Regardless, I'll be at RayJay on Saturday night, screaming my lungs out once again.  It's nearly impossible to find another fix to replace the euphoria of the big wins (L'ville).  All we can do is deal with the down times as best we can, and wait for that next big win.

Hi, my name is BullGrad95, and I'm a Bulls football addict..........

[nukebull]

Welcome to college football

[flsportsfan83]

ATLEAST IM NOT THE ONLY ONE WITH A PROBLEM.

[Brad]

The best therapy is to show up at RJS on 12/03.

[Kyle]

Someone asked me about my weekend today...I told them it was good...well, except for Saturday...and I wasn't prepared to talk about it.

[nukebull]

Bulls lose Bucs lose I lose in fantasy football bad weekend. Never did I think I would look for Monday to come so I could go to work and think of something else.

[RHBullsFan]

I feel the same way bro....then I went to see my Bucs on Sunday at RayJay and the weekend got even worse. I am 100x more upset over our loss to UConn though.

[usfnyc]

everytime i think of saturdays game i get more and more mad. It is getting worse not better. I can't get out of my head UCONN's punter kicking the ball 10 yards handing us the game. Ok....so are QB can't pass, our Wrs can't hold on  to the ball.....but we had the ball inside the 10 after a punt return and we still can't punch it in. I had Pitt and Rutgers fans asking me why one of the best running backs can't score from the 1 yard line. And what is my response? The head coach felt the need to call a quick snap.

[BullDoug]

everytime i think of saturdays game i get more and more mad. It is getting worse not better. I can't get out of my head UCONN's punter kicking the ball 10 yards handing us the game. Ok....so are QB can't pass, our Wrs can't hold on  to the ball.....but we had the ball inside the 10 after a punt return and we still can't punch it in. I had Pitt and Rutgers fans asking me why one of the best running backs can't score from the 1 yard line. And what is my response? The head coach felt the need to call a quick snap.

I need Pepto Bismol now after reading this post.  I havta mentally make an effort to continually erase the 3.5 hrs of Saturday out of my mind so I can function.  All I wanna do is to lay down and take a nap or beat the wall with my bare fists everytime I think about the final six minutes of the 4th quarter.  Talk about opportunity lost due to completely bad decisions.

WHY THE HELL DO YOU RUN A QUICK SNAP WHEN 15,000,000 BCS DOLLARS ARE ON THE LINE!  YOU CALL FREAKIN' TIME OUT TO DISCUSS IT.

IF YOU THOUGHT YOU ARE GOING TO GET ANOTHER CHANCE, WHY NOT KICK THE FIELD GOAL?!  Stupidity most likely

WHY WASN'T THE ALL TIME USF & BIG EAST LEADING RUSHER NOT GIVEN BOTH CHANCES FROM THE 1 YARD LINE OR AT LEASTED USED AS A DECOY ON PLAY ACTION PASS?  The coaching staff out thought themselves on this one.

WHICH DIVISION D ONE OFFENSIVE COODINATOR RUNS A MISS DIRECTION PLAY ON FOURTH & GOAL FROM THE SIX YARD LINE WHEN IT HAS BEEN PROVEN IN THE LAST THREE GAMES THAT DC'S OF RUTGERS, SYRACUSE, CINCI & UCONN HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTING THIER BACK SIDE CB'S & DE'S TO STAY AT HOME 'CUZ USF LIKES THE REVERSE ACTION PLAYS!?  Rod "Run Another Reverse" Smith, that's who!  It's only in every freaking USF game film of 2005.  Freaking reverses don't work after the seasons 3rd game against season defenses.  It's called a lack of originality & game plan when you call these plays over & over.

I think this sums up about 50% of my frustration.  FireRodSmith.com makes all the sense in the world to me.  I can't look our casual fans in the face.  You know the ones that wanna climb on the bandwagon but can't let the Gators, 'Noles & 'Canes go.  Arrrrggghhhhhhh!  I surly hope that this coaching staff learned some hard lessons.