Volunteers

No, I don’t need volunteers.  I grew up in east Tennessee near Knoxville where the University of Tennessee Volunteers play.  People there are absolutely nutty about football and you can’t live there without picking up at least a little of it.

I haven’t lived there since 1987 but I have to admit that my blood still runs orange (team color).  Every fall I get excited about football in general and UT Vols in particular.  Sure, I love the Patriots - they rock - but there will always be a place in my heart for the Vols.

Their season starts on Monday, September first at 8pm on ESPN at UCLA.  They’re a very good team and it should be a great game. 

Nowadays, though I live in Boston.  In years past it has been hard to watch the Vols play anywhere except some kind of pay-per-view event.  Years ago I found a dive sports bar that would show Tennessee football games.  It was called The Big Dog and it was  a dirty, filthy little place with 50 TV’s and sticky floors.  It turned out that I didn’t mind the sticky floors because I would plant my ass in a barstool and stay put for 3 hours (except for trips to return the rented beer).

Now the Vols are on ESPN and the Big Dog is all grown up.  Its more like a nice ESPNZone than the dive I used to know.  That’s ok, I can still go there and watch the Vols. 

Maybe I should do it again, just for fun.  A night out watching football.

I should totally do that.