Who let the Dawgs out...

If you've read my profile, you know I'm a graduate of the University of Georgia. People are astounded when I admit that Mark and I never went to a football game while we were in school -- or since. I went to a few when I was younger but, quite honestly, football, on TV or in person, bores the living hell out of me. I don't know players names or who the coach is nowadays -- I do know that the mascot -- a bulldog -- is named Uga -- it's probably a given that I would know that since it involves a canine. If someone asks me if I saw a game on TV, my usual response is "I didn't know they were playing". If someone asks me if Georgia won or lost a game, I usually have no idea. What can I say? Unless one of my children is playing a sport, I'm just not interested.

But, no matter how I feel about sports in general, I was appalled by the picture and article that greeted me in the newspaper this morning about the trash that fans leave behind after home games in Athens. Not a little trash. Not even a lot of trash. It's a ton of trash. Now, with all the problems in the world, maybe this is not high-priority but, then again, what this shows is a total lack of respect or consideration -- and that is a big problem. I would venture to say that alcohol is probably part of the issue as well -- it's always been said about UGA, that it is the "fountain of knowledge and the students go there to drink". I'm sure other colleges are not exempt from the same foolish behavior.


I don't know who is to blame for most of this -- students or tailgating football fans Anyway you look at it, though, this is absolutely shameful. I wonder if UGA fans go to other schools and trash their campuses? That would be even worse. It's pretty bad, as the article mentions, when an out-of-state newspaper has to warn fans of other teams to be prepared when they come to Athens for a game.

When I was at UGA, my favorite place in the world was the library. I spent a couple of hours there nearly every day -- sometimes studying but mostly combing through periodicals and books. When we left Athens, I cried over having to say goodbye to that one building. So, when I read that, on game days, the library has to be closed because people were peeing, vomiting and fighting inside, I was mortified.

Is this a symptom of what's wrong with our society -- that people just don't care? That they don't bother to clean up their own mess because "somebody else will do it for them"? Maybe that's over-thinking the situation but what this looks like is a bunch of spoiled brats who can't bother to think about anything but their own pleasure.

I think these Dawgs need a choke collar.