Why College Football is America’s Greatest Sport

In Back to the Future, Marty McFly is always telling Doc Brown, "that's heavy, Doc." If Doc Brown is telling Marty he can't date Lorraine because she's his mom and it could disrupt the space time continuum, Marty says "that's heavy." When Doc tells Marty that he can't use the sports almanac to get rich betting on games because it will screw up his kids' futures, that's heavy doc. Heavy. If you do this small thing, huge consequences will result. Huge heavy consequences. That's why it's heavy.

This is what makes college football America's greatest sport: the heaviness of it. The consequences every week are huge. In the NBA and MLB regular season, you play 1000 games and if you have an error or miss a free throw, everyone has forgotten by Tuesday. In the NFL, everybody has it made regardless. Tony Romo fudges a snap in the playoffs in 2006 , who cares! In 2022 he's making $20 million a year and winning celebrity golf tournaments. The weight of the failures is lightened by the money and the celebrity and the amount of games. Tom Brady has started in 316 games in the NFL. He started in 25 at Michigan in college. Can he tell you what he did against the Dolphins in 2009? Probably not. Can he tell you what he did against Ohio State in 2000. Yes he could.

I'm watching Nebraska and Northwestern over the weekend, and that game was HEAVY. It's two sub par teams, it's week 1 regular season. But it doesn't matter. It's HEAVY. Nebraska has 80% of the crowd in Dublin. They're big favorites. And every excruciating play down the stretch is heavy. 1) If Nebraska loses, their hopes of being nationally relevant are instantly gone 2) If Nebraska loses Scott Frost might not make it back to the states 3) If Nebraska loses, the amount of earning potential this team has for the school goes down significantly. The weight of the money, and the firings, and the season and the summer work outs and the recruiting and the promises and all that weight, and it comes down to one play. 2nd and 4. Two minute Drill. Nebraska down by 4 with a minute thirty left and driving. Transfer QB Casey Thompson, the savior for Husker football, throws a ball to a tight end. It's too hard. It goes off the receivers hands, intercepted. Game over. 1 play, 5 seconds, and the hopes and dreams and weight of all of that, money, jobs, excitement, potential...all of it collapses because the kid threw the ball a little too hard. That's heavy.