I’m sure it depends on the town/city and team. Around here people love the team and I’ve worked with plenty of people who were football players. They have incredible stories from their college years and we’re treated like celebrities to an extent. And not even talking about star players but just linemen. Also, players do get lots of under the table benefits, and now the push for them getting more pay is increasing(which I think will actually be bad for the sport overall). I agree 100% about the beating on their bodies though. There needs to be a way to take care of lingering injuries and surgeries down the road. By the time they hit 40 most have had a decent amount of surgeries….everything from ankle surgery to hip replacement to back surgery. That’s the main aspect that needs to be addressed, not giving a 20 year old a little more cash to blow in college.

The universities are to blame for running the place like a business, not an institution for higher learning with a stated goal of educating the local public. They import players from OTHER STATES while Mississippi players get left to work at walmart or the military. As for non athlete Mississippi people, they get left in abject poverty and end up thinking that going to community college is a high achievement. The amount of poverty here is so astonishing. The bridges are falling apart, the social workers get paid three peanuts an hour and honest to god don't care about their jobs because no talent can be retained at an average of 24K per year. Then the nation proceeds to ridicule poverty stricken mississippians because punching down is a national sport. Ideally, gifted nerds and female athletes should get star treatment as well, but the money is in football and universities don't give a good goddamn about anything besides covering up injustice like profs raping students, begging for money from alums, and getting more and more new students to pay for their worthless degree programs. It's a stichk if i've ever seen one. But one isn't "finished" or whatever if you're not an alumni of somewhere. After college, my respect for non-degree folks rose enormously. I saw people get by with C's and D's after doing a week of studying. Not in STEM courses, but folks get vomited out with fresh degrees and they're really no better than the folks without degrees. The difference? Money.

I miss football; we have not had an Ottawa Redblacks game since 2019. But it's back this month.

Favorite rivalry is between the Calgary Stampeders.

DED. That is me - everywhere! also I had to shazam that song. Will be running to it later. Thank you.Nice! I went to two college games. Did things. Things which shalt not be named. But things for which I will live in infamy for forever until I can find some place else to live and by that time I think I'll be too old for it to even matter. lol! Ferk. Actually when I went to boston it seemed like I was more well known than here so ... ugh.