By LLOYD GARVER has written for many television shows, ranging from “Sesame Street” to “Family Ties” to “Home Improvement” to “Frasier.” He writes online for “The Huffington Post,” and
I USH ERED I N TH E N EW YEAR BY seeing “the granddaddy Of them all.” I’m not talking about some irresponsible pro athlete or polygamist Warren Jeffs. I’m talking about the Rose Bowl. Because it’s the oldest post-season football game, it has that “granddaddy” nickname. This year’s game featured the favored University of Southern California Trojans against my wife’s alma mater, the University of Illinois’ Fighting Illini. We went because Illinois was her school, and because we had never gone to the Rose Bowl before. I’m a big believer that one of the functions of sports is to provide people with an escape from the real world. If you don’t like sports, maybe you escape by knitting, or reading, or traveling. Regardless, every once in a while, we all need to get away from thinking about things like the war, the dropping dollar, and who’s going to be living in the White House next year. But even in the midst of 93,000 cheering fans at the Rose Bowl, it was impossible for me to escape completely from these things.
Getting to the game was much easier than I had thought. Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus will take you there. Unfortunately, I learned too late that you needed reservations for the bus. Whoever heard of reservations for a bus? The good news was that there were other available buses, and I found one that took us from Loews Santa Monica Hotel and back.
We arrived almost two hours before kickoff, so my wife and I had a picnic on the grass while we listened to the partisan fans cheer. Over and over again, I heard the Illinois loyalists loudly spell, “I-L-L.” It seemed strange that they would cheer for a synonym for sickness. However, after a while, I realized that the “I-L-L” was followed by an “I-N-I.” The USC fans also cheered, and although I knew their team is called the “Trojans,” every time I heard them call out that word, it sounded like they were cheering for safe sex.
Once we got into the stadium, the massive crowd was overwhelming. If it was amazing to a sports fan like me that so many people traveled thousands of miles just to go to a football game, I can only imagine what the non-fan must think. And in this political year, a question suddenly occurred to me: How many of these 93,000 people will be too busy, too tired, or too lazy to vote on Election Day? In fact, over a million people attended the five bowl games on Jan. 1. Another 71,000 went to the first-ever NHL regular outdoor hockey game in Buffalo. So, it’s obvious that if we really want to increase voter turnout, all we have to do is make everyone attending a sporting event show proof that he or she has voted in the most recent election.
Before the game even started, we were all reminded of the war as Navy SEAL paratroopers majestically glided and then landed on the field. Fighter planes flew over the stadium, and there was a color guard for the national anthem.
Football is often considered a metaphor for war (and vice versa). This Rose Bowl game was no exception. USC easily defeated Illinois 49-17 because USC was faster and more powerful. The nicknames and costumes should have been a giveaway: Illinois’ tribe, the Illini, and the Trojans who dress as warriors. I mean, historically, how often did Native Americans defeat soldiers with armor and swords?
The official program for the game cost $10, which, any day now, might be equal to about one euro.
Despite these glimpses of the real world, watching the game was pretty much escapist. And fun. When your biggest problem is the fact that the fake bright orange hair on the girl in front of you keeps blocking your view, you know you are not in the middle of any serious pursuit.
One of the most affecting moments of the afternoon occurred before the game started. On the huge television screen, we were shown soldiers stationed in the Middle East. One group was from California, and one was from Illinois. As they cheered on their teams, the stadium roared. I hoped that the soldiers were going to see the game thousands of miles away and scream even louder as their team scored. Those were some people who really deserved an escape from reality.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 5, 2008. Read the original PDF.