Oh, If We All Were Mountaineers...

First off, Merry Christmas and all that jazz - hope everyone had a good one and continues this happy holiday season with food and family and fun. I myself will lead by example...

What's really important is this: the WVU Mountaineers' bowl win on Saturday. We were lucky enough to see it live in Charlotte, with thousands of other gold and blue faithfuls and it proved to be a great game - in fact, I could have used a bit less on-field drama, but the Mountaineers wouldn't have it any other way. Pat White, who may emerge as one of my all-time favorite people in the world, did not disappoint and it meant the world to see him go out on a fantastic finish. Good work!

But, onto what I found most ineresting about the game, aside from the actual play: the fans. I am accustomed to the WVU legions and will forever feel at home surrounded by them and their seemingly endless supply of Bud Light, no matter in what geographical location we find ourselves. But UNC fans? I felt unprepared.

Some of them wore blazers and button-down shirts. Some had preppy powder blue sweaters and khakis. Some ladies were dressed in heels. And skirts. To go to, you know, the football game. Now, you will be hard-pressed to find many skirts in the WVU crowd, unless you count the man known as "Big Cat" and that little number he's worn the past one hundred years and I don't think I will.

Many of the Tar Heels appeared ready to go to some sort of fancy mixer. Some WVU fans looked like they might need their stomachs pumped. One intoxicated Mountaineer (And really, is there any other kind?) yelled to the Tar Heel section of the stadium, "Yeah, wine and cheese at a tailgate! This is UNC football!"

Wow. To top it all off, I sat a few rows behind a Tar Heel fan in a blue bow tie. I once knew a guy who wore a bow tie everyday at WVU law school. He seemed nice enough, but I am leary of bow-tie-wearers walking amongst me daily. But, I swear, even he took it off on Saturday morning to drink from a keg before Mountaineer games. I saw it.

Seriously, folks. It's a football game. And you live in North Carolina. It's a nice place, I know. I live here too. But, it's hardly the Hamptons or Boston or some similarly snooty place where this is considered normal. (If this sort of place even exists outside prep school movies ala "Scent of a Woman.")

Take off the bow tie for the bowl game. Put on a stained hoodie like any other self-respecting football fan, grab a hot dog and chug a Natural Light outside the stadium before you have to go inside, and scream your head off for your team. Maybe paint each side of your face different colors. Or take off your shirt in sub-zero temps. Something.

Or maybe, this is just what we do at WVU. And in this, too, we wouldn't have it any other way.