Spring football not what it used to be

The OU spring football game is this Saturday, and OSU’s is next Saturday, and it will be fun to go to both games, because it’s fun to go campus and fun to see players back in shoulder pads. But that’s about the extent of the interest.

Nowadays, spring football doesn’t do much more than remind us that autumn football will return. Time was, spring games were interesting and competitive. Guys really hit, games were really played. These days, the quarterbacks wear blue at OU and green at OSU, and they’ve got a coach-enforced force field around them. You can’t really blame the coaches; quarterback health is paramount in the success of a season. But it makes for bad football.

The old varsity-alumni games have become antique relics. Have you ever seen something old, or been a told story about the olden days, and thought, “Did people really live like that?” Did people use outhouses? Did kids walk five miles to school? Did the whole family sit around a radio at night, listening to a serial?