Game Day: Boring Would Be Preferred

CBS Sports Network should own the Philly TV ratings tonight.

CBS Sports Network should own the Philly TV ratings tonight.

One exchange on social media about tonight’s Temple at Charlotte football game centered on whether the weather would make a game that, under perfect conditions, figured to finish something like 56-10 Owls to something like 20-3 or 20-7.

A long-time Temple fan, a guy who might be the best Temple football fan on the planet, ended the thread: “It should be interesting.”

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You want a lot of things tonight from Temple at Charlotte, but you do not want interesting. My idea of interesting always has been Temple a lot, bad guys a little.  What might bore a national audience, a Temple blowout, interests me greatly. That would be interesting. Blocking an extra point and winning on a last-second field goal against a vastly inferior opponent might make for great drama, but is not for the faint of heart. Different strokes for different folks.

Leave interesting for the novels.

Speaking of that subject, one of the most republished works of literature in the United States is the book “Charlotte Temple” by Susanna Rowson, a best seller in its first printing in 1794 and a book often described as interesting and compelling with 200 American editions.

Since the last republished one hasn’t been since 1984, you can consider tonight’s game, the 201st edition of Charlotte Temple—albeit the first football edition.

The plot line that supposedly will make this one interesting is the weather. Can the protagonist (in this case, Temple) hold onto a fortune (i.e., the possibility first broached by ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit of running the table) against a conniving antagonist (Charlotte) helped by a surprising ally (wind and rain)?

Or will the protagonist be saved by the good fortune of holding onto the ball and getting out of Dodge with the delicious possibility of an unbeaten season and the wealth and fame that comes with said accomplishment still alive?

It should be interesting.

Geez, I hope not.

Tomorrow: Complete Game Analysis