Minimal if any research will be done for this series. Hear me out - how much useless sports knowledge do you have? Furthermore when has it ever been of use outside of a 2am chat where you end up trading obscure names of MLB players from 1998? I am going to give you some of my early forming moments as a sports fan. Things that have been engrained in my brain and aided in forming my adulthood - for better or worse. Mostly worse as I sit here a 32 year old dude still steaming over events that transpired almost 20 years ago.
As a man of dignity, class and unwavering loyalty I have been rooting for my Chestnut Hill fellas since 2000. Its been an unrewarding ride that I have put way too much time into. Its like a terrible series that you aren't enjoying, but you're on season 4 and just have to see it through. The time you spent isn't coming back and your invested, gotta ride it out.
To say its been tough is an understatement. If I were to rank my top 10 memories as a Boston College Eagles fan, the majority are sad. The red flags are there, the scars are deep but there is no leaving this toxic relationship. I cemented myself within this on a cool autumn afternoon in 2004. The football team was fresh on a win in West Virginia - something historically they didn't do. All that was left was beating a Syracuse team that was void on a real running back for a birth in the Tostitos fiesta bowl. Keep in mind, this was the hey day of NCAA football video games. This was something I played out on my gamecube on Marlboro street and yearned to see in real life. BC in a BCS bowl game, stuff of legend.
As a teenager I had yet to be exposed to the realization of Boston College being a tier 2 type athletic program. I was only exposed to them being on the rise. From nearly beating Miami in 2001 to this day in 2004 the Eagles seemed to be heading to cementing themselves as a perennial top football program in the country. Diamond Ferri then proceeded to happen and the rest is history. If memory serves me correctly he was the backup's backup's backup's backup. That's like 7th on the depth chart, very similar to where I resided in high school. Imagine breaking 3 levels of 'break in case of emergency' in order to get to this kid. This kid played on the secondary on defense and most likely wasn't even taking reps on offense. Local kid from Everett makes good in revenge against the big bad Eagles. I bet that was a headline somewhere. BC was leaving for the ACC the following season so everyone was mad at them anyways. Throw in the fact that a cornerback is shredding you and this, my friends, is the epitome of being a BC fan.
I cannot explain to you the level of pain that was felt. There were BCS signs in the student section, bags of Tostitos the whole thing. Then Matt Ryan, in his first career start gets abused and picked off by Diamond who then turns around and runs it down there throat. Now, anyone who has become a BC fan over the past few years, and kudos to you on hopping in when its so low, but you will never understand the pain of losing this game on a cold November afternoon.
19 years later I think about this game often.
Syracuse - 43
Boston College - 17
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writing this was not therapeutic like i originally expected it to be
Very sad to hear that @B-Rider… maybe Tavis can write a blog about the Niners guy who muffed 3 punts in the 2011 NFC title next and you won’t feel as bad