Labor Day Triptychon - Carter Finley Stadium

You are in the middle of a sea. A sea of red color, noise and craziness. Sixty-thousand people that scream, clap their hands, stomp with their feet. You are in the middle of them. All of them – literally – wear red: T-shirts, jerseys, caps, face- and some body paint. This sounds like a prehistoric appearance for battle. In fact, reality is not that far away. Because all that is about nothing else than college football.

Some people might say that American sport leagues have a boring, professional routine, their fans showing unagitated, consumer-like behavior. Without big emotions.

But this is certainly not true for the football that is played by college teams, you think. You are standing between thousands of enthusiastic students, the hardcore fans of North Carolina State University. Not some regular college. No, but the biggest school in the state and Alma Mater of Amir, your co-student. Founded in the 1880s originally for teaching agricultural and engineering sciences. But tonight, it is all about the science of the egg-shaped ball.
The last minutes of the game are ticking away and the home team is shortly behind the guests from Florida. Both teams do not look very academic with their helmets and shoulder pats. But in a way, the ancient principle of “mens sana in corpora sana”, shaping both your body and your mind, lives on. Surely unnoticed by the people involved.

A football match officially takes four times 15 minutes. Due to uncountable interruptions, during which the clock is stopped, that easily translates to several hours of watching. You have been in the stadium for a long time, but luckily not bored by the game. Whoever sides with the home team has embarked on a rollercoaster trip. After a disastrous start, the University of Central Florida looks like the winner for a long time. But in the third and fourth quarter, NCSU catches up tremendously.
More than one might expect upon seeing all that tacking and blocking, the game is about technique and strategy. A player willing to receive the ball is worth nothing if the thrower messes up the pass. Likewise, a mile-long pass will lead to grey hair among the spectators when there is no one to catch due to strategic errors.

But this football day did not start upon entering the stadium. During the whole afternoon American event culture has been celebrated. In the parking lot in front of the stadium. Ten-thousands of fans bring tons of beer, hotdogs, chips, even whole pigs along with their cars and trucks. Pregaming in America.
Is that the product of a hedonistic, present-day mentality? No, according to Amir’s father, who said that this was practiced already back in the sixties.
People stand and sit in front of their open tailgates – thus the name tailgating – talking, eating, drinking. And playing games. Why not becoming athletic yourself before a sports event? Why not combining that with beer consumption? You are not a fan of drinking games, but for the sake of transatlantic cultural exchange, you introduce Flunkyball. The Americans like the new game.

The goal is to hit a water bottle and tip it over with a tennis ball. The bottle stands in the middle between two lines, on which the two competing teams are lined up. They take turns trying to hit the bottle. In case of success, the team is allowed to drink from the beer bottles placed in front of them, as long as the other team is not done putting the water bottle back into place. The team with the better throwers, more agile sprinters and faster chuggers wins. Who said that Europe always equals culture?
Due to the fact that beer bottles are not available, the game is played with cans. The water bottle is rarely hit, but the more people laugh and have fun. Even the sun above Raleigh cannot assist those few cans of weak American beer in getting you drunk. Or was it rather the fact that you withdraw from the game early, polite European style?

Anyway, the fun afternoon reduces the disappointment about NCSU losing its first game of the season. Maybe fans of German soccer club Schalke 04, notorious for giving away the championship at the end of the season, should start tailgating before the final match?