I feel I need to explain something because I have several friends who just do not get it. Part of me thinks they never will understand (and maybe they just are not capable) but I will attempt to clarify why I feel the way I do about this. Parts of this argument may be well reasoned. Other parts will almost certainly be irrational tirades straight from a mind that has been raging for days (if not much longer). I may be in the wrong and it may be something I need to work on, I realize that. If you want to continue, buckle up and let us begin.
It is no secret to most of you that I hate the university of oregon. In fact, on Saturday it took nothing but a glance in the direction of someone wearing green or yellow to begin feeling rage. And I do not use that word casually here, I mean I literally felt rage when I set my eyes upon duck fans. Win or lose, I wanted the day to end quickly just so that their fans would be out of my city again. The fact that the day ended in the worst possible outcome in the history of sports made it even harder to stomach.
I am sure that the duck fans reading this so far are already savoring the memory and are coming up with snide comments to add at the end of this. I guess that is my point. I know you are doing it because you are a duck fan and all of you feel the uncontrollable desire to be completely obnoxious. I know Beaver fans can be annoying too. All fans of all teams throughout the history of sports have had good fans and obnoxious ones. I am not here to get into that argument.
Lest anyone forget, I have seen every Civil War in person since 2005. That's right, three at home and three down at Mordor. Even though Beaver fans tend to hate ducks more than they hate us, I have to say that other place is far more hostile to outside fans than Reser. My freshman year down in Eugene we were literally in physical danger. The girl next to me was drilled by a golf ball thrown by a duck fan out of the crowd. Cowards. I realize that two years ago some duck band members had paint thrown on their uniforms (though I could not help but think at the time that it could only have improved their appearance) but on the one hand it was your mistake for walking in front of our student section during a game that was going badly and on the other that is not as dangerous as the stuff that gets thrown at us at Autzen. I will not say Beaver fans are perfect, but I know from seeing games at both stadiums (in the band and as a civilian, mind you) that the environment is far more hostile and duck fans are far more obnoxious. (See also: OSU is consistently rated most family-friendly football program in the country while oregon was overwhlemingly rated as the worst fans in the Pac-10 last year by an ESPN poll of college sports fans)
On top of the fact that duck fans have this insatiable urge to be total jerks to Beaver fans (even while claiming we should like them because they are "from Oregon," which I will get to later on) they have taken a great deal from me personally. As a member of the OSU Marching Band, it is not "just a game." Not by a longshot. Two years in a row I had a dream taken from me. Maybe my team could have played better. Maybe we should have just taken care of Stanford in the season opener to make the Civil War irrelevant (at least as it applied to the Rose Bowl). Whatever could have or should have been, all I know is that I have never felt more crushed in my entire life than at the end of the day November 29th, 2008.
To this date I cannot think of a time in my entire life where I felt worse. I still want to cry anytime I run across that picture from the newspaper with roses on the ground. And it was all punctuated by stupid duck fans dancing around on my home field right in front of me. Pointing, laughing at the distraught band that could hardly make it through the fight song and the alma mater after the game. They are just as sore winners as they are losers. I would have killed to go the Rose Bowl during my college career as a member of the OSU Marching Band. I had dreamed of it, I could almost taste it. Now, having just finished my last season as a member of the OSUMB, I have seen three straight losses at the hands of them who I hate more than anything else. Honestly, I did not even care about a bowl at the beginning of the season. If we lost every other game I wanted us to beat the ducks. Taking the national championship from them would have almost atoned for the last two years.
Beyond all that personal baggage I have invested in hating the ducks, I will turn now to address what they just cannot seem to get through their thick skulls. To large extent I have begun to think it is just arrogance on their part. Every year I cheer for two teams: the Beavers and whoever is playing against the ducks. The Beavers are obviously a constant, every week my second favorite team changes to accomodate what I last stated. Civil War week I have one favorite team and can focus entirely on being against the ducks. You follow. And every year I get the same line from duck fans who think I should root for them when not rooting for the Beavers because "they are from the same state." Honestly, I find this to be the most ridiculous thing anyone can ever say to me.
On the one hand, why should I care that they are from the same state? To be perfectly honest, I do not have a huge amount of state pride. I am from the southern part of the state. I would rather we joined with northern California and formed the State of Jefferson. I guess I would cheer for SOU or WOU or even Portland State. But you know what? We do not usually compete directly with any of them and none of them are our rival. That is one of the biggest things duck fans cannot understand anymore. I know back in the day there were literally riots over the Civil War. This was the 114th meeting but the series goes back 116 years. It was canceled twice due to the fact that it was not going to be safe. Some years it had to be held at a neutral site because it would have gotten too violent between fans in either Corvallis or Eugene. We have not forgotten. The ducks have and they are confused. And what good does it do the Beavers that the state looks good? The state in fact does not look good, all the attention goes to them and we get screwed even in the years where we finish better.
Across the country schools hate their rivals unconditionally. Texas - Texas A&M, Kansas - Mizzou, USC - UCLA, Ohio State - Michigan, you name any of them and they will tell you the do not ever want to see their rival do well. Heck, in the Big 12 their fight songs are devoted to their opponent in that they are all about saying farewell to their opponents and how bad they are going to beat them. You think Texas cheers for A&M because they are both from Texas? Do you really think that Cal, Stanford and UCLA jumped for joy that USC owned the Pac-10 for the last decade because they were "a team from California and it made the state look good?" Do I even need to point out how ludicrous that sounds? Well, that is exactly what our rivalry is like. The duck fans are just too arrogant to understand. They think we should be proud of them for their success. You are our rival, we do not want you to have success. We want to beat up on you and see you beaten up on. I have much more respect for the duck fans that hate the Beavers than the ones who cheer for both "except when they play each other." You are not supposed to like your rival, that is why you call them your RIVAL. There is a reason our rivalry is called the Civil War. Figure it out.
I think that is all I have to say for now. I do not necessarily mean to offend anyone, this is just how I feel. You can comment back if you want, but I reserve the right to delete. I do not really want to get into an argument, you are not going to change my mind. I hope that sheds some light on why I feel the way I do. To be honest, I am not looking forward to even going home at the end of this month because I know southern Oregon will be crawling with those in the green and yellow. Almost all the clothes I own have something OSU on them and I will undoubtedly be derided. Even when we win I get people going out of there way to send a "go *ucks" in my direction when they see my OSU stuff. Losing in this way and what they get to do now will only make it worse. I never respond to them, by the way. You know why? Because I am a Beaver fan and I do not have that insatiable desire to be a jackass to my rival. Is it true that I will be cheering for Auburn in the coming month? Yes it is. Will I go out of my way to let any duck fan know? No, I will not. Am I frustrated and does that frustration get the best of me sometimes? Yes it does. But I hope that after this extraordinarily long and disorganized rant you will have some semblance of the why.
