Notre Dame @ Stanford

College football is one of America's foremost religions. In many ways it's bigger and better than the NFL, the professional league. It's certainly a more interesting institution. The only thing Americans love more than their country is their college football team. These loyalties are fiercely proud, often born and bred and life-long. A fair-weather fan is no fan at all. At Stanford Stadium, for the last Stanford game of the season, we saw babies in team jerseys and ninety-year-old men in Stanford caps. There were more than fifty thousand people in attendance.

Stanford Stadium

The weather is fair in Stanford at the moment. The team is ranked fourth in the country, and their quarterback is one of the best in the league. In fact, Andrew Luck was the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy (most outstanding player in collegiate football) both this year and last, and he is widely expected to be the number one draft pick for the next NFL season. Fans of poorly performing NFL teams have been running "Suck for Luck" campaigns, urging their teams to lose any remaining games so as to increase their chances of being allowed the first draft pick. This kid is twenty-two years old, the same age as my younger brother. He has the whole world at his feet. Watching him lead the final game of his college career, and take a knee to end it after they'd easily defeated Notre Dame, was enough to give anybody goosebumps.

Andrew Luck (12)

The majority of college football players, however, will not have the chance to play professionally. Some of them may barely take the field throughout college. For all of these players, college football is as big as anything in their lives is likely to get. How do you top playing in front of tens of thousands of people and being watched on television by millions, all to a soundtrack of brass bands and national anthems?

Sidelined

At the end of the game thousands rushed the pitch to farewell the seniors and celebrate both this battle and the war. We left through the Tailgating area, where people park their cars and RVs the morning of the game, and spend the day drinking and barbequing with friends and family in anticipation of the evening ahead. We caught the Cal Train back to San Francisco, an hour away, and fell asleep dreaming big dreams.