Football Season in Baton Rouge!

Here we are, in the middle of football season... a religion in Baton Rouge. Between the LSU Tigers, and the New Orleans Saints, it's quite a big deal. People don't joke around with this around here! Guys, girls, young, old, families, everybody gets together and join the fun. Nothing like the rather masculin crowd of our football in France (which we'll call soccer to avoid any confusion). Clearly the atmosphere is not the same, and this is for the best. 

Both teams are very much objects of pride. Between the college games and the professional games, there are, basically, from September to February, games going on every weeks. For the professional teams, the season ends with the famous Superbowl.

Football is the favorite activity around here (along with fishing and duck hunting...), so that means there's always something to do during the week end. Unfortunately when you have friends that are borderline fanatics, you don't do anything else anymore. And this is downright damn irritating. Watching a game on TV every week, hummmmm, no thanks. Once in a while, when it comes with a good boozy BBQ... Ok. Because I need to point out that a game last easily 3 hours or more. And as if that was not enough, like every american televised show, it is interrupted with commercials every 5 minutes (LITTERALLY, every 5, or 10 minutes) - a torture. And since in reality, I still really have a hard time to follow a game... it is out of the question to subject myself to this without a little bit of entertainment.

Luckily, I'm exaggerating a bit. I have friends whose interests rise a little bit higher than football, fishing and duck hunting, so I do not suffer every week end from this prevailing madness.

Though when there's a home game for the LSU Tigers we usually join the festivities before the game. It is tradition to party everywhere on the campus around the stadium. And Baton Rouge is nationally well-known  to be VERY VERY good at it!

So, run down of a game day:

The "tailgate"

A tailgate party is when the spectators party on and around parking lots of a stadium before a game starts, kinda like a warm up. Cars and pick up's trunks are open (hence the word tailgate, which, in english, describe that rear end of a car), every body has food out, drinks, usually there's always a few that crank up the music, most have their camping chairs out with their TVs plugged to a generator to watch the afternoon games taking place in other cities, or to follow the evening game when they don't have a ticket to get in the stadium. In Baton Rouge, most people set up their camps on the campus lawns, so it looks a little bit like that:

A good tailgate entails having a nice supply of hotdogs, burgers, chips/salsa, all kind of stuff to grill... And especially a big supply of drinks, primarily beer, generally the whole keg, and Jell'O shots (mix of gelatin and alcohol to gulp down to the rules of the art... terribly gross when you can't stand gelatin).

The main activities for any good self-respecting student, consist, of course, in being the least sober before to go to the game: Beer Pong and Flip Cup are the two main games. The goal of Beer Pong is to throw a ping pong ball in the cups, filled with a little bit of beer, of the team accross the table. If you aim well and make your ball land in one of your opponent's cups, this guy must drink this cup in one go. Then it's his turn to throw the ball. The player who is the first one to finish drinking all his cups loses.

Beer Pong

Flip Cup

This game can gather a larger group of players, as long as the number is even and as long as everybody can stand side by side along a table. This time, each person has a cup in front of them, filled, also, with a little bit of beer. Team A is on one side of the table, and Team B on the other side, each player face to face. The two players standing at one end of the table toast then drink the content of their cup. Once empty, they must lay the cup flat on the table edge and flip it with only one finger. The second player in line can do the same with his own cup only once the guy before succeeded in flipping his cup. The team that finishes flipping all its cups first wins.

I'll point out that you find those games at numerous other occasions.
Also notice the huge red plastic cups. It's the standard here in supermarkets for disposable cups. Once again... another world. 

 
As for fashion, of course, everybody is dressed with the team colors. And sometimes rivalries are clearly displayed...:

Sometimes, even the beer cans match:

Finally, when the game is about to start, everybody walks towards the stadium. In Baton Rouge, the stadium can sit about 92 000 people. Might as well say that the surroundings are crawling with people.

The fanfare
Before the game, it's nice to see the fanfare walking down towards the stadium. You'll see the Golden Girls, who lead the cortege, the cheerleaders, followed by the brass band. The tune that's played in the second part of the video is LSU anthem. Here, in my opinion, you really feel like you are in America. Those Americans really put all into it... for a simple game that takes place every week! Amaaaazing!

The game

Getting into the LSU stadium for the first time is pretty impressive. 
It made quite an impression on me, especially because everybody is in purple and gold, since most of the stadium is filled with LSU fans. On the picture below, you can distinguish a tiny square of fans from the opposing team, in red, in a corner of the stadium. It gives you an idea. Kind of overwhelming for them I would say. In short, 92,542 seats, it makes for a good crowd. And they are at the moment starting work to add to that. Soon there will be almost 100,000 seats, which will make Baton Rouge one of the biggest college stadium in  the USA. 

So I'm not gonna try to explain the rules, because like I said earlier, I'm still a little clueless. But the atmosphere alone is worth the trip. LSU fans are so loud that the stadium is well-known to have the best atmosphere of all college games, but also, and for the same reasons, to be the most difficult place for a visiting team to play.

The brass bands of both teams are in the stands, in their own space, accross from each other. And throughout the game, they play in turns, either their teams' anthems or short popular music pieces to motivate everybody. Sometimes one band starts playing while the other one is still playing, but louder, it's like a battle, and it's pretty cool.

At half time the two bands walk down on the field and they each perform their show, about 10 minutes each. Lots of people leave their seats at that time to go fill up with junk food. As far as I'm concerned, I was waiting for this for an hour and a half, so I'm staying.

Half time show

I almost forgot the mascot: Mike the Tiger!... who hop up and down around the field once in a while.

Here is the plush version...

 And there, the real one...

Mike the Tiger (Mike VI because it's the sixth) lives in its habitat next to the stadium. You can see it there, but when it's game day he is out on the field! Yes, a real tiger... I didn't lie when I said Americans spare no expense...

There you go, now you have a better feel for the football spirit in Baton Rouge...
Personally, it gives me the impression that it's almost like if the soccer world cup was happening every week end. You understand a little better where the American federative/team spirit, and patriotism come from.  Imagine if, in France, the effect of the 1998 world cup victory went on even only one time a year... (from seeing how crazy people are here about the annual Superbowl, it seems to me like it's almost its equivalent when it comes to that level of popular jubilation): Everybody was happy, partying together, it was a marvellous world where we all had good intentions... Wouldn't we become some kind of Disneyland too?