\u201cNo, can\u2019t. Tennessee plays at 7:00 that night. What about September 8th<\/sup>?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGeorgia plays at 1:00 that day, we\u2019ll be tailgating all day and depending on how the game goes, if we lose then we won\u2019t feel like going out. Let\u2019s look at September 15th<\/sup>. What about that day?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cClemson plays that day and we\u2019re going to the game.\u201d<\/p>\n You get the idea. And as much as we try, we honestly may not be able to work anything out on our calendars until December.<\/p>\n And we\u2019re both ok with that.<\/i><\/p>\n We know how passionately each of us feels about our football teams and totally understand when every Saturday is socially roadblocked. There\u2019s no hurt feelings, animosity or resentment for arranging our lives around our Bulldogs, our Volunteers or our Tigers.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t speak for women living in other parts of the country, but I can speak for Southern women. If they like their football, which true Southern women do, then you aren\u2019t going to get between them and their favorite team on any Saturday from August through Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t schedule your kids skating party or your all day<\/i> barn wedding\u2013 where the nearest tv is eight miles down the road\u2013 in the middle of the Ole Miss game. If the Duke game gets changed to the same time as a Southern woman\u2019s hair appointment, that appointment is getting rescheduled. Don\u2019t invite them to a baby shower that starts at the same time as the Alabama game or they will wake up that morning with a sudden case of \u201csomething\u201d that feels like \u201cit could be\u201d German measles, mumps or whooping cough, but definitely not a germ that should be around a mother-to-be. Being a nice Southern girl she will have the gift dropped off in time for the shower though, and it will be extra generous, of course.<\/p>\n When my kids were young, I cannot tell you how many Saturday baseball games, soccer games, or dance competitions I went to with a very sour attitude, because my beloved Georgia Bulldogs were playing at the same time. I would watch my kid out of one eye while asking anyone who I thought might know \u201cDo you know what the score of the game is?\u201d\u2013and yes, it was referred to as \u201cthe game.\u201d If that person answered with, \u201cWhat game?\u201d they immediately got scoffed with a dismissive arm wave.<\/p>\n My Southern family has always scheduled our fall birthday dinners around college football games. We\u2019ve even timed many a Thanksgiving meal between two critical games. We\u2019ve put Saturday yard work and housecleaning chores off. And I will admit we\u2019ve opted out of the occasional Sunday morning church services, because we either partied too much the night before or we were so despondent over our loss on Saturday that we, as Southerners say, \u201ctook to the bed.\u201d Of course, God might overlook us missing church now and then since we do so much \u201cpraying\u201d during the games.<\/p>\n Southern women just get this phenomenon. They don\u2019t question it. They don\u2019t fight it. It doesn\u2019t hurt their feelings when someone else doesn\u2019t <\/i>get it and wants to plan something. If that happens, they just won\u2019t go. They will still watch their most important game and take \u201cthe offended\u201d some leftover buffalo wings or spinach dip the next day. I mean who can stay mad at a person who comes to your door bearing chicken wings? They\u2019re the olive branch of snack foods.<\/p>\n In addition to having them memorized, Southern women have their teams\u2019 football schedules on their calendars, on their phones, maybe even written on their bathroom mirrors. They lay out their lucky game day clothes the night before. They wake up with butterflies in their stomachs on game days. They start texting things like \u201cGO DAWGS! Woof, woof, woof!\u201d to their friends at 7 a.m. who are already up mixing something called \u201cturtle shots\u201d for celebrating every thrilling touchdown\u2013they sound weird, but they\u2019re delicious. They strategize with their fellow game watchers on what food to bring for game day. And if a field goal is missed after someone changes seats on the couch, they will immediately order \u201cget back in your seat!\u201d and they will mean it, because college football is serious business for Southern women.<\/p>\n Everyone knows the stereotypical Southern woman is demure, but strong, prim but assertive. They have a way of cutting you to the quick with one sharp comment, but it\u2019s said with such refined precision you don\u2019t even feel the blade. They can put you in your place, but cushion it with a \u201cBless your heart,\u201d and no one is the wiser. Unless their<\/i> team is on the field. <\/i><\/p>\n At that point they morph into the most foul-mouthed, shameful, name calling creatures that ever carried a Kate Spade on their arm. They will shout obscenities mirroring a mudslinging desperado while dressed in their monogrammed sweater and matching Ralph Lauren culottes. And yet, afterwards, while everyone else around them is all wide-eyed from shock, all is forgotten\u2013until next Saturday. Of course, the beer consumption often helps fuel this angry fire, but my theory is if God hadn\u2019t wanted us to drink beer, He wouldn\u2019t have created Clydesdales.<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s the Southern woman\u2019s theory that THEY are the only ones blessed enough to experience the best football in the country. To the women of the South, no other football counts.<\/p>\n I remember a Southern girlfriend telling me that one Saturday her neighbor was in the yard looking forlorn. When she asked him why he said \u201cSyracuse lost today. I\u2019m a big Syracuse fan.\u201d She promptly followed that with, \u201cWell Good Lord, no need to admit to that!\u201d Southern female football fans \u201chave heard\u201d there are some solid football programs in other places, but preferably their teams are comprised of young athletes who grew up eating their mama\u2019s biscuits and gravy.<\/p>\n I remember the precise moment when I was taken over by the college football infatuation. My first year at The University of Georgia, first game of the season\u2026<\/p>\n I\u2019d never been to a college football game in my life, and suddenly I was \u201cBetween the Hedges\u201d in the student section of illustrious Sanford Stadium submerged in a bounty of screaming Georgia red and black.<\/p>\n It was intoxicating\u2014and a lot of intoxication<\/i>.<\/p>\n I\u2019d never seen so many people, 92,746 to be exact, consumed with such emotion over anything, much less a football game. I watched the esteemed Georgia Bulldogs run out onto the field being led by the SEC\u2019s most perfect Southern gentleman, Coach Vince Dooley. I was so moved by pride, excitement and the beauty of that stadium\u2013if you\u2019ve never seen it, I promise you, you\u2019re missing something\u2013and the rich history of the college football greats, such as Hershel Walker, that had come through those locker room doors. The Redcoat Band played \u201cGlory, Glory.\u201d My eyelids embarrassingly began to rim with tears, and I was thankful for my sunglasses. I knew I was hooked. This was my team.<\/p>\n These were my Bulldogs.<\/i><\/p>\n And that\u2019s how it happens. They can\u2019t help it, those Southern women and their love for college football. It\u2019s in their veins to love their Bulldogs, their Gators, and their Gamecocks. They can be adorned in the most fashionable, ladylike Razorback \u201ccardinal red\u201d ensemble down to their mini-skirts and matching boots and still \u201ccall the Hogs\u201d without shame and with the perfect pitch of an opera singer.<\/p>\n Some of them attended the college they cheer on and some did not, but they will still love their \u201cadopted\u201d teams with zeal. Maybe their daddy went to The University of Kentucky. Maybe their husband went to Georgia Tech or their daughter goes there. Or maybe no one ever went there, but growing up they were just \u201can Auburn family.\u201d It doesn\u2019t matter. When it comes to Southern women and their college football, love is love.<\/p>\n And of course, GO DAWGS!!!<\/p>\n Recently I was talking with one of my friends about trying to schedule a get-together so she and I and our husbands could catch up. Lisa and her husband are considered some of our dearest friends. We were all in the same circle when our kids were attending the same schools, Scout troops, and sporting … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodstateofmind.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_5636-300x225.jpg\")
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