This Ain’t Football

When I rolled up to the crowded and freezing tailgate at the Yale Bowl last year, my immediate reaction was: this ain’t college football. I came to Yale knowing it’s not a “football school,” but I expected the Harvard-Yale game to feel at least a little bit like the college football fanfare I was raised on as the child of a Lifelong-Louisiana-State-University-Geaux-Fighting-Tigers-Frat-Boy-I-Bleed-Purple-And-Gold-Football-Season-Ticket-Holder. I couldn’t help but compare my experience at The Game with LSU football, and everything about the Yale-Harvard Game fell short: I got lost at the overcrowded tailgate, drank a forgotten hard cider that was left on the ground, and stood in the half-empty stadium amongst the tired and cold crowd, explaining football to my suitemates as they literally fell asleep. I saw Yale win, but I never felt the euphoric pride I hoped to feel in the student section of a league-winning team. To me, Harvard-Yale felt more like a tired rivalry between two elitist institutions than an energized college football game, and I felt lost in the midst of the old ivy.