I was at The Worst Bar in Columbus Friday night and I ran into a friend of mine who is a Buckeye fan. This friend introduced me to his cousin – guess what – another Buckeye fan. My friend indicated that his cousin thought that Penn State would beat Ohio State. Of course, my friend, being a Buckeye fan, thought that such talk from his cousin was sacrireligious.

I, on the other hand, remarked to myself that his cousin at least seemed somewhat reasonable. At this point, I chimed in that I thought Ohio State would also probably lose to Illinois. My friend responded, “Why would you think that?”


Well, Illinois beat Ohio State in Columbus only last year. Did you forget? Illinois seems to be better offensively this year and they get Ohio State in Champaign. Not to mention that Ohio State seems to be less competitive than in 2007.

I held my tongue and didn’t mention that Ohio State is going to need some luck to get by the Spartans as well as the Wildcats.

Anyhow, I expected the lack of rationality from my friend, a dyed-in-the-wool Buckeye fan. If you say anything against the Buckeyes, his reaction is to put his hands over his ears and sing, “La-la-la . . . . ” That’s typical of most Buckeye fans. And of course, if the Buckeyes lost the rest of their games this year but beat Michigan, the reaction would be – “At least we beat Michigan” – which is even more moronic.

His cousin’s reaction was even more interesting. His cousin refused to acknowledge me the rest of the evening simply because I thought Illinois would beat the Buckeyes. This was the guy who had already said that Penn State would beat them. I had originally thought the guy was somewhat rational. Perhaps I gave him a too large dose of reality.

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