Monon Bell
Just the way I am not the biggest fan of soccer, but get excited about the World Cup and Eurocup, I am also not all that into American Football but try to make an effort to watch the Super Bowl each year. If I had grown up in the US I might have been a tad bit more interested in this version of football, but my guess is that I would still be by far most interested in basketball.
Another exception to my lack of interest in football is the college football rivalries, but predominantly those that involve the home team that doesn't suck big time. (The last qualification disqualifies Stanford for a couple of years that I was there, and UIUC for most of their history.) For the past two years I was able to experience the college football (and other) rivalries from a whole new angle. During these years I've taught at both DePauw and Wabash, and these two schools are very competitive with each other, on and off the field. Last year DePauw won in the very last few seconds of the game, with an amazing 47 yard field goal by Jordan Havercamp. Since Wabash had an impressive undefeated season this year, I was expecting that they may avenge last year's loss. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. The game became heavily lopsided in DePauw's favor from the very beginning, and even though Wabash made a courageous run in the second half, the ultimate DePauw victory was never really in question.
My own office building (Goodrich Hall) overlooks the football field, and ever since I accepted the Wabash job I was looking forward to watching the Monon Bell game from the third floor Physics labs. However, most people told me that watching a football game from a Physics lab is pretty lame, that you really need to be on the bleachers to experience the full excitement, so I balked and started watching the game with all the other students, faculty and alumni from one of the bleachers. However, since the game was going pretty badly for Wabash, and it was a freezing day outside, I reverted to my original plan and watched the second half from the labs. I tuned in to the internet radio, but that turned out to be a distraction since they were covering the game with a several seconds of delay. Despite the final outcome, I still enjoyed the whole experience. And at least Sharmin went home happy that day.