Okay, I am obviously NOT at Texan....

Here I am, living in Austin, and I am an alien. I'm not from around here.

This is painfully obvious by one simple fact: I own not one single item in "burnt orange". That is to say, I am not a Longhorns fan. I'm not a football fan at all, and if I watch football, it's the NFL, not college football. It most certainly is NOT high school football.

People in this state go nuts over football. Even high school football. They build multi million dollar stadiums for high school football here. One town in the eastern part of the state annexed 31 square miles of unincorporated land just to get one kid to have to go to school at their high school. The parents didn't ask for this. The town did it while they were on summer vacation. Why? Because they needed this kid to be a running back for thier football team. Madness.

UT changes head coaches more often than they change students. They get somebody to sign a contract for a gazillion bucks over a decade, and then can him two years later. Why? Because he didn't make it to the Rose Bowl, or the Nacho Bowl, or the Chicken Fiesta Bowl, or some such meaningless game.

Don't get me wrong - I can appreciate a good game just as much as the next guy. For example, I root for the New England Patriots every chance I get, but I do NOT bitch, whine and generally complain when they don't win. It's expected. My life does not revolve around a bunch of overpaid jackasses shuffling down a field, trying to move a brown ovoid and hurt each other. Or any other type of ball, for that matter.

When the Patriots won the Super Bowl (for the first time ever) on February 3rd, 2002, I didn't see a single throw, punt, grunt, hit or drop of the entire game. First time they've ever won the Super Bowl, and I didn't bother to watch it. Why? Simple. My son was born that morning. That is the ONLY reason I know what date that game was. It just doesn't matter.

Okay, so you've hung with me this far, and you're saying "what's his point?"

This past week, the Longhorns went to the Holiday Bowl. I understand they lost. From 6:00pm to 7:00pm every Monday through Friday, Jeff Ward and Ed Clemmens on KLBJ 590 talk about sports. Well, Ed was out and so another guy sat in. All Jeff and this guy talked about was whether or not Mack Brown (the Longhorns' head coach) should be fired or not.

Can someone tell me why it matters one lick what the performance of the Longhorn's football team is?
How does this affect the performance of the school overall?
How does having a winning football team improve the quality of education for it's students?
What, exactly, is it about the football team that makes it worth paying a coach $1.45 MILLION dollars over 10 years?
How has Mack Brown added $14.5 Million Dollars to the University's coffers?

Never mind the salaries of the other coaches, aids, team doctors etc, etc, etc, ad infinitum....

The University is still paying for John Mackovic's contract, and now people want to pay for Mack Brown's contract as well as a new head coach? Are they soft?

Somebody, please, explain it to me in terms I can understand......