Sports Blog: "O" Stands For Ordinary
As I watched Stanford's shellacking of the Oregon Ducks last night, I couldn't help but notice the Oregon fans holding up their hands shaped like an "O."
There were hundreds, if not thousands of them in the stands, all displaying this pose as if they were an entranced cult of UFO worshipers.
As the game wore on, I noticed fewer and fewer Duck followers raising their collective hands, only to be replaced by Stanford fans striking the "O" pose.
Could it be the cardinal clad crowd didn't realize what the "O" stood for? Or maybe they just had their own interpretation of the meaning of "O" ?
Perhaps "O" stood for Overrated, since their guys were dismantling the number 3 team in the country with relative ease.
Or maybe "O" stood for Ouch, since the broadcast showed a Oregon player weeping on his quarterback's shoulder as if he was saying, "Those guys are hitting really, really hard!"
Some may have thought "O" stood for Overstock.com Bowl, the likely invite the Ducks will receive after falling below second in the Pac12 conference.
I'm sure Stanford fans considered the "O" stood for Ostentatious, referring to the viral video of Oregon's palatial locker room, designed to cater to every whim of the pampered athlete.
Don't count me as a Oregon hater, far from it, I was rooting for the Ducks last night. As a PAC12 fan, they had the only clear path to the BCS championship, but that's over.
Last night, the Duck's not only lost the game and the championship, they lost their well crafted brand as the slickest, quickest, hottest thing in sports.
With their toughness in question, their ill-advised chant, "We want 'bama'" seem "O"ver reaching, for a team on the "O"utside looking in.
For the Stanford Cardinal football team, "O" can only stand for "O"rdinary, meaning this is just an ordinary win on the road to another BCS bowl. Sadly, it will take a miracle and a slew of upsets for Stanford to get a shot at the championship, but they are still an "O"utstanding team.
As last nights game wound down, only Duck fans really knew what "O" stood for, and I'm sure it started to seep in after Stanford's second touchdown.
"O"h no, not again...
