There is nothing quite like a home football game at Texas Tech.
They have to be the most enjoyable events I can attend here, chock-full of camaraderie with fellow Red Raiders and entertaining traditions. There's also a certain fluidity to Tech football, where new things can come up randomly within a season and sweep through the student section as if we've been doing them for years.
Older traditions, like The Matador Song, where the trumpets joyfully sound off a pseudo-call to arms, gives me goose bumps every time I hear it. I'm particularly fond of the enthusiastic jumping issued in unison with the now awesomely black-clad drumline. It's an odd tradition to hold onto, but it really is this uniform energy shared simultaneously by the entire student body.
Every season, there are old customs that I return to and continue to love (like the slow- fast-reverse marathon wave sessions) and new changes that I come to adore (like Michael Crabtree replacing Dwayne Slay as the football player I would perhaps like to bear children for, but I digress...). Yet inevitably, we then have those irritating little Tech quirks that get under my skin, to the point where I have trouble focusing on the actual game itself and instead fantasize about violent outrages in my head.
And no, I'm not insinuating our apparent unsportsmanlike fandom.
I actually, begrudgingly, have to defend it a little bit, only because that is who we are. We are not the compliant Aggies, who will hiss at you like a snake if they want to display their common dislike. I'm not condoning the fact that we turn our own fight song into outspoken profanity, but that is - for better or worse - who we are.
Playing sportsmanship commercials before the game and having outcries of protest from the powers-that-be doesn't make a mostly inebriated Red Raider fan base think deeper about their moral ethics at a sporting event.
It will, in fact, make us more defiant about it. We are Raiders; chanting offensive mantras, degrading opposing players for no other reason than their names, or even carrying a ripped down goal post across the stadium to slam it into a maroon-shaded section is just what we do - whether you perpetuate it or become irate by the people who do.
We are pirates, in fact. We pillage, therefore we are.
But aside from our disrespectful antics, which make me cringe and giggle all in one motion, the actual distasteful trend that I need to throw on the table of uncompromising judgment is the women of Tech and their need, or desire perhaps, to dress like they're going to Wild West on a Thursday night.
During the first football game of the season, my friend and I set out to count how many girls we saw dressed in a skirt and/or heels. It was around halftime that we decided to give up, somewhere in the 60s. They were climbing up stairs; standing on curved, metal benches; and cheering among a throng of thousands with the sunlight blaring - in a skirt or sundress, with heels or (heaven-forbid) knee-high, leather cowboy boots.
I refuse to believe that girls dress like this for comfort. And, if the aim is to attract the attention of the Red Raider men around them, I have some bad news: You're at a football game. The men's attentions have pretty much been claimed 45 minutes prior to kickoff. Plus, it shouldn't take a skirt hiked up to just below the cheek to get them to notice you; a pair of jeans or shorts can get that job done, and comfort can be achieved as well.
I just take issue with girls walking around like an army of skanks, sometimes in pink, blue or green Tech shirts, thinking everyone is going to be impressed by their unique fashion sense. This is football, and I'm not saying you have to like it, but if you're going to show up, (and this being Texas, where football is a brand of religion) then balance must be attained.
And for the sake of the Masked Rider's mustache, don't take my criticism of slut-wear to mean that wanting to look pretty at a game is a bad thing. I understand the need to gussy up and wear huge red earrings with black eye-shadow. I'm a girl - I have that inherent curse of needing to be pretty at all times too.
And perhaps I might now be sounding contradictory, having just defended Tech's beloved lack of class, but I'm not criticizing the skirts and heels because they're not tasteful.
I'm criticizing them because they look ridiculous. You wouldn't wear a simple jeans and T-shirt ensemble to a nightclub with a dress code; why on earth wear sequined dresses made of towel material to a sporting event that calls for jumping, screaming, and riotous fans?
And now I sound like those ridiculous sportsmanship commercials. Terrific.
Just put on some clothes that fit the occasion and also are red or black. Save the cute outfits for an event where boys might actually pay attention. Screaming obscenities is an event that calls for casual, comfortable clothing. Take advantage of it. You do not impress anyone with the tiny outfit, colossal sunglasses and hideous Coach purse.
Not at a football game, anyway. Most of us are too busy trying to watch the game.
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