Drink, Lose and be Merry. a Central vs Western Michigan Football LEgend.

Central Michigan lost a close 21-14 game to Western Michigan over the weekend, and I am not upset in the very least.

And I am a Fire Up Chip guy. MAC football is not big boy football. None of those teams can compete for a national championship and it takes an act of God to get one of these teams into a real bowl game.

So, our games don’t mean as much.

The rest of the world does not care about us. They try to push Central-Western onto cold, frigid Wednesday nights when no creature dare venture outside.

The sad part is when you go to Central you leave at halftime to watch Michigan or Michigan State play. When you walk back to the dorms on a Wednesday night you might catch replays of Michigan or Michigan State volleyball, if you are lucky.

CMU and WMU can no longer compete with teams in the power conferences because it is now legal to pay all players. I met the bad man at Western. He carried cash to pay players inside a purse. The bag men at Michigan, Texas and Wisconsin carry their cash inside a suite case.

“Show me the money” is not only the battle cry in professional sports but is the battle cry in collegiate sports.

I suppose I should hate Western because I went to Central and we are blood rivals. But I don’t hate Western Michigan. Some of my best times in college were spent in Kalamazoo hanging with drunk Broncos as we bar hopped and hung at off party parties.

And we returned the favor by hosting “The End of the World Party” during Western weekend at CMU. We trashed the entire town of Mount Pleasant. There was so much toilet paper hanging from trees and so many stray kegs in weird places it looked like aliens invaded CMU.

I tried to get my son Brandon to attend Central. We toured campus and he did not like it. We spent a weekend in Kalamazoo and he loved Western. I sadly was ready to say, “you can go to Western if you want. Dad won’t be mad.”

He got into Michigan State and became a Spartan instead.

We went to a WMU reception, and I met a cutie in the admissions department. I told her I went to Central and she said, “I’m sorry.” Two seconds later she apologized and said she was kidding that Central is a fine school.

Here is how much I hate Western. I got drunk and married a Bronco. When I sobered up, I stayed with her.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Terry Foster is the self proclaimed Minister of Words with Woodward Sports and fills in on shows when folks need time off. He worked at the Detroit News and Free Press for 37 years and co-hosted the Valenti and Foster Show for 13 years at the Detroit Lions flagship.