The IU football team gets a long-anticipated bye weekend this week. Last year, this break was a gift to the Hoosiers, who traveled to Madison, Wis. last year, and shocked, well, the world, by running all over the Badgers the following weekend.\nNext week, IU faces Wisconsin once again. ESPN-plus has decided to broadcast it, Badger fans are preparing to travel for it and the IU team is hoping history is on the Hoosiers side, wishing for a repeat performance.\nBut as for this weekend, IU has had two days off from practice and will be off Saturday as well. So let's join them in taking a break, and finding some humor in something other than IU's rush defense.\nMany famous people have made observations about sports, and it's surprising how many of these quotes pertain to IU's football squad. Take a look:
"The football season is like pain. You forget how terrible it is until it seizes you again."\n-- Sally Quinn, former Washington Post writer
Spoken like a true Hoosier. Well, I have no idea whether Sally Quinn was from IU, but it doesn't take a native to know what the first kickoff of the football season does to a Hoosier. For the fans, the first ball flying to a waiting opposing returner signifies various hopes about to be deflated, and the knowledge that they've only experienced 30 seconds of a game and are hurting already. It's a long season of watching the train wreck of the team, and yet still not being able to turn away or give up. Terrible, indeed.
"Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many players on the field?"\n-- Jim Boulton, baseball author
Um, excuse me, IU's quarterback, Gibran Hamdan, plays both baseball and football, and he's a business major, and supposedly, those majors are pretty smart. What about all those athletes who play both sports, does their intelligent fluctuate depending on which field they're on? Plus, what is the excuse of all the baseball players who run into walls, dugouts or the stands and STILL get don't catch the ball? If you're going to put your body through all that pain, at least be smart enough to get the ball. And the sun is NOT a valid excuse when you are wearing a hat, with sunglasses and black eye-paint!
"The day you take complete responsibility for yourself, the day you stop making any excuses, that's the day you start to the top." \n-- O.J. Simpson, former football player
Actually, I couldn't find a connection between this quote and the IU football team. But I just wanted to see if anyone found O.J.'s quote as ironic as I did.
"We can't win at home. We can't win on the road. As general manager, I just can't figure out where else to play." \nPat Williams, former Orlando Magic GM
Here's an idea. The Hoosiers can win at home, but only if they play teams like William & Mary or Central Michigan. So this former NBA GM should petition to play all the weak NBA teams, although I'm not sure the NBA head office will let the only play the Chicago Bulls for the entire season. Besides, IU has just played two cake games at home, so who knows what'll happen? They might need to find a new place to play too. I'm thinking, pee-wee football fields. Hey, we could win!
