Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

There are few things more aggravating to a sports fan than to hear someone who isn’t a fan, or at least not a diehard fan, say “it’s just a game.”

When I was walking out of Razorback Stadium after the Rutgers game, I went on a rant about the effects a terrible football season can have on the economic conditions of basically everything in Northwest Arkansas, as well as the general perception of the university and state among fans around the country. Not to mention the mental health of the most devoted Razorback fans. Admittedly, part of the reason for my complaints was the trouble I knew I’d have trying to sell extra tickets for the rest of the year. 

Last week, it was much more than all of that for me. I had plans to attend the Texas A&M game in College Station, Texas. The bags were packed, tickets in hand, and hotel booked. Unfortunately, life intervened and personal matters forced us to stay in Little Rock. No matter how difficult things became at home, we did, however, have the blessing of a horrific college football season to focus our frustrations on.

It felt much better to try to analyze the failings of the football team (the offensive line and secondary were among our favorite targets) than to deal with the real world. The coaching search was also a popular topic. We probably asked each other multiple times who we thought would get hired or what we thought of this coach or that coach as a possible candidate. And that was before Saturday.

It’s not often that a morning kickoff is what you want, but it was perfect for us because it was nice not to have to sit around and wait. The room was filled with “Run, Knile!” “Oh, wow, Arkansas converted a third-and-short on a running play!” “The Hogs forced a punt! The Hogs forced a punt!” There were high-fives and pounding on tables and genuine hope that, for the love of everything holy, something good was actually about to happen.

Nothing good happened the rest of afternoon for the Razorbacks. As has become the norm over the last few weeks, the second quarter began and Arkansas couldn’t do anything right. Fumbles, interceptions, penalties, missed tackles. You almost wish Houston Nutt was around to remind Knile Davis of the three points of pressure.

Even though we had an unfortunate reminder that football wasn’t the most important thing in the world, it was still exactly what we needed. It was an outlet. Sometimes, life gets too complicated to pinpoint exactly where to direct outbursts of frustration, but it’s easy to complain about the Razorbacks coaching staff: “They couldn’t get lined up right on an extra point attempt and had to call time out! That’s coaching!”

Over the course of everything happening, I did see a relative Saturday night I hadn’t seen in a while. He’s an officer in the Air Force leaving for his deployment this week. When I asked him how he was doing, he replied, “I’m pretty good. Just hope Texas loses.”

Perfect.

College football has been called a religion, or at least a way of life. Whether or not it’s healthy for society to place the importance on sports that it does is certainly a valid discussion to have, but it’s important to look at it accurately. Just like a book, movie, or even a piece of fine art, it’s there to do essentially whatever each of us needs it to do, whether that be distraction or escapism or the communal feeling of being part of the team. There are several different ways to describe it, but surely it is much more than just a game.

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Doc Harper is the editor of ArkansasExpats.com and is a regular contributor to ArkansasSports360.com. You can email him at heydocharper@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @doc_harper.