Naa naa, boo boo, MSU doo

Ever notice how sports rivalries bring out the bad kid in us? Well, with me anyway. Dye me maize 'n blue for my University of Michigan Wolverines. And when my very favorite blogger (now anyway) Horsetail Snake yesterday splashed a picture of himself with a Michigan sweatshirt on his blog, and threw a jab at cross-state rival Michigan State . . . well, I was in Hoss heaven.

Now some of us Wolverine boosters were extreme sports fans before there were extreme sports, if you catch my drift. And the Michigan State University Spartans support their school colors as seriously as a flag-waving patriot. Their incendiary post-game victory celebrations are legend, as my son found out. He's a junior there now. After MSU downed long-time nemesis Duke in a pivotal NCAA basketball tourney match-up this past March, my son told his older brother immediately after, "I've got the gasoline if you've got the couch." He didn't touch off any fires that night, though he did have his first taste of tear gas at the post-game street party. His Sparty baptism, I call it.

Although college football officially kicks off today, feelings already have been running strong between the sister schools. I sustain a regular e-mail correspondence with a fellow high school graduate, he an MSU grad now an English professor while I attended the U of M. Fur flies between us during sports seasons. Witness this "scholarly" exchange between us after I reported that a young man pummeled three U of M students after they reportedly poked fun at his MSU attire.

BOB: So one MSU student hospitalized three UM students?
Hmmm, sounds about right!

DAVE: Yeah, one MSU student took out two pre-med students and their
instructor. That does sound right. A lot of neanderthals at MSU. We're higher up the evolutionary chain here.

BOB: Geek status does not put you higher on the evolutionary
charts--most geeks can't survive in the wild, as the MSU guy showed. Go Spartans!

It brings out the bad little kid in both of us.

Today, my boys and I are attending a rivalry of a different sort. USA faces off against Mexico in a contest to determine which team will be the first to qualify for the next World Cup soccer championship. Soccer contests and brawling go together, particularly in intense rivalries such as this one, to take place in Columbus, Ohio. I told my boys that there could be trouble, something that didn't phase Scott, the MSU student. "Bring bail money," he advised.

Spoken like a true Spartan.