I like football. I like watching football. I like playing football. I’m not a big fan of college football, however, mostly following the NFL (Rams or Chiefs specifically). Everytime they do they player introductions on TV, they mention at which college the team members played. Why?
I can understand for rookies, to kind of give the audience what experience the guy has (if one follows college sports), but even the superstars (Joe Montana, Emmitt Smith, etc) are still introduced with the names of their colleges. Why is this? Do you care?
Nah, I really don’t care, but I think it’s good trivia to know while watching the game.
You know–you’re watching the game with your buddies and somebody says, “Hey, where did Billy Ray Smolenski go to college?” You can then take pride in the fact that you KNOW this trivial bit of trivia. Or you can get in an argument about it with some of your buddies, or even place bets on it. Makes the game even that much more fun!!!
I’m with you; don’t like college but love NFL. Saints fan (I know, I know).
But I am interested if a player is from a college in my home state. I might even recognize the person. I like to see what area of the state they lived in. College players from other states, I don’t particularly care about, except recently Syracuse by spouse osmosis. He just loves that Syracuse quarterback playing at Philly (if he still is, I can’t remember his name right now).
It’s the same sort of thing as when you ask the new person at work where they are from/where they live.
The reason that they say what college the players are from is that it’s easier to do that then to find out what their home town as ,as that could mean one of several things:
A) The place they were actually born
B) The place they grew up in
C) The place that the player considers to be “home”
I’d guess it’s because a lot of pro fans follow college too. I don’t, but I know some who do. Also, it lets the commentators segue into “Yea, Billy Joe was a big CB down at Oklahoma State” with lots of archive footage. They love that.
Another thing I just thought of: Is football the only sport that does this? College is basically the minor leagues for footblall, and how a player does there can be significant, but I don’t see the appeal of every game reminding us what college he went to.
How about basketball? Does pro basketball list which college the players went to?
Well, I watch mostly college football, and it helps keep things interesting. Like for Donovan McNabb, who Regina was thinking of, when they say he went to Syracuse I’ll remember how the Gators beat them in Orange Bowl his last year. Makes things a little more fun when watching the NFL.
I don’t give a rat’s ass where they went to college, whether it’s football or basketball.
Colleges are no more than minor leagues for those sports anyway. Do baseball players get introduced as So-and-so from the Toledo Mud Hens? Of course not.
It’s nothing more than trivia to most, but it gets extremely overhyped by the draftniks (and other sports “journalists”).
Since most pro teams are pretty much the same to me, I roto for the one that has the most former Cornhuskers on it. (It doesn’t look there will be too many for a while). But if you have no affiliation with any of the cities, whichever one you pick as a favorite seems kinda arbitrary. The players change, the teams move, etc. As Seinfeld says, " You are pretty much rooting for the laundry."
I don’t much care where they went to college. I maybe have a greater interest in someone from my general geographic area, but mostly, I don’t even pay attention when they announce it. What matters to me is that team they’re on now.
Pats are going all the way this year. It’s true! Stop laughing, dammit!
As far as my NFL team goes, I don’t really care where the players went to college. Although I do try and keep up on the careers of some of the players that went to my college (there aren’t that many).
It at least gives me some interest in a game where I don’t care who wins.
What Ol’Gaffer said. I only care if they went to my Alma Mater. There [sub]used to be[/sub] active NFL players that went to my college when I was also there, so it was extra interesting to follow their careers. (“See that guy? I rolled him over so he wouldn’t choke on his own puke.”)
