While I sit here writing this, I am also watching the Super Bowl. I know what you’re thinking … “What a party animal!” As a 40-something, going to a Super Bowl party is an absolute “no thank you.” I’m more of a make some snackies, turn the game on and try not to fall asleep before I get the 127th-nacho-in-my-belly kind of guy nowadays.
I am also beginning to realize that this is a really boring game. It doesn’t help that I have no dog in the fight this year, other than an age-old hatred for the Patriots. But even with that, all the players and coaches I couldn’t stand from back in the Colts rivalry days are now gone. So, I have no reason to care about this game other than the fact that it’s the Super Bowl.
I can’t help but think maybe the reason I can’t get into the game this year is because my Super Bowl already happened on Jan. 19, when two college teams met to play in Miami, Fla. Nothing could happen today between the Seahawks and Patriots (two teams I don’t give a rip about) that could even come close to topping what my IU Hoosiers did just a few short weeks ago. It’s an excitement high that I just haven’t come down from yet.
If I could go back in time to Bloomington, to a football game, find me in the tailgate lot and not at the actual game, and tell my late teen-something or early 20-something self that IU was going to win it all, my young self probably would have replied …
Young self: “Why did it take so long to get another basketball championship?”
Me: “Well, actually it was the football team. They went 16-0.”
Young self: “The football team. The INDIANA UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL TEAM. That’s who won the national championship?”
Me: “Yes.”
Young self: “So, let me get this straight. You mastered time travel, just to come back to play a prank on me? Cause there’s no way IU football won a championship.”
Me: “They did actually. And yes, I couldn’t think of a better way to use time travel.”
Young self: “Whatever, old guy. I’m going back to the tailgate.”
Our columnist had a great time with his son cheering on the IU Hoosiers! (Photo provided)
Ok, so he didn’t believe me. That’s alright because I know that he’ll have the chance to experience that game all for himself in 20-something years. He’ll get to see Mikail Kamara block that punt and Isaiah Jones recovering it in the endzone for a touchdown. He’ll see Fernando Mendoza’s Avengers-like, superhero quarterback draw that sent him soaring into the endzone for what seemed to be an impossible touchdown. He’ll see Jamari Sharpe’s game clinching interception, reminiscent of the Marlin Jackson pick against the Patriots that sent the Colts to Super Bowl XLI. Then he’ll see Coach Cignetti smile for the first time in decades.
It was quite a ride, and I can’t wait to see the movie. I’m hoping for Chris Pratt to play an elated 40-something in Fishers, jumping up and down in his kitchen with his family, celebrating a championship he never saw coming.
The moral of the story is … if you ever master time travel, maybe think of something better to do with that technology than go talk to a skinny punk in the grass lot of Memorial Stadium.
Tim Rathz can be reached at 40somethinginfishers@gmail.com. Follow on Facebook or Instagram.
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