Where's my fan card? Sure, I'm a journalist but dammit, I'm rooting for the Hoosiers

Can you blame me? All those years, all that misery. Why fake it? I just hope I can sneak pom-pons into the press box.

I gave up my fan card a very long time ago. That’s because I started hanging out in press boxes and, as we all know, there’s no rooting in the press box. I grew up a New York sports fan – Giants, Knicks, Islanders and Mets – but as I entered the journalism field, especially as a professional, those old rooting interests fell by the wayside. My wife doesn’t understand it – how can you not be a fan? – but it’s like the old Seinfeld line: “You’re rooting for laundry.” I watch games dispassionately, analytically, forever thinking and wondering, “What should I write about this?”

Friday in South Bend – and yes, I’m making the road trip – I’m going to dig my fan card out of the detritus of my mind and root (quietly…I’ll be in the press box) for my Hoosiers, who will face off with Notre Dame in the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff game. There aren’t a lot of firsts at Notre Dame Stadium, but here we go. It’s going to be incredible, a game under the lights, a decent chance of light snow, frigid conditions, the eyes of the country on ND and IU, all for a chance to move on to a Sugar Bowl appearance against Georgia. (Can you imagine the IU fanbase in New Orleans? What could possibly go wrong?)

Why wouldn’t I root for IU? I mean, I’m an alum, a 1982 graduate, and I’ve suffered just enough with IU football to justify this breach of journalistic conduct. I was actually lucky to have been in school when IU went 8-4 and beat Brigham Young in the Holiday Bowl in 1979, so it hasn’t all been a chorus line of 3-8 seasons, but still. If you’ve been a fan of IU football for any real length of time, you know what it’s like to get your teeth kicked in on a semi-regular basis.

I have to say how weird and wonderful it was to call up a Zoom interview with IU coaches and players Wednesday and see the “Playoff First Round” backdrop on the computer screen. I mean, 11-1? Ranked 10^th in the College Football Playoff standings? Notre Dame, you could see. But Indiana? The losingest program in Division I history? The eternal floormat with a chance to compete for a national title? This is a fever dream, is what it is. It almost doesn’t seem real. My friend calls them the “Hallelujah Hoosiers.” I’m not sure a trademark is necessary. Anyway…