Bye ❌eek Of The Century (Real Version)
Reflecting on where our Husky Hate has been, and where it's headed.
Happy Friday, and a Merry Husky Hate Week to all who observe this wonderful extended holiday.
Some may think that this Hate Week is half over, but I think it’s only half begun.
We all know that this is going to be a special kind of Oregon-Washington game.
It’s the first time these two teams will face off in a top ten matchup, it serves as the perfect platform for either teams’ September-Heisman QB to separate himself, and it also happens to be the final season of the Pac-12.
Oh, and the Coug/Beav-hating College Gameday crew might be there. And they might do the show from a boat.
There will be plenty of time to talk about the X’s and O’s of what I’m calling The Game of The Century, but those are just some of the juicy storylines.
But contrary to popular belief, football isn’t actually about football—especially not during Hate Week.
It’s a special week (or two) out of every year where all logic should be thrown out the window in favor of a blinding hatred for that team up north.
I think we all know why we hate the Huskies (or why some of you might hate the Ducks!) but in case we forgot, let’s take today to review:
For most of history, those doogs spat down at us from their ivory, space needle-shaped towers.
They kicked our asses, and every now-and-then they’d dangle a victory in front of our faces, just to throw bread crumbs and popcorn at us instead.
They thought it would always be that way.
And like most of history, the chumps that “thought it would always be that way” got hit in the mouth, usurped, and cried fowl.
Somewhere around 1994, things changed.
We started getting a little cash from a generous and newly-interested uncle, and Washington was reeling from a couple of recruiting sanctions (the way they talk about it you’d think they were given the SMU death penalty, but they weren’t).
Some UW fans also claim that Oregon snitched on Don James for cheating, but nobody actually knows that for sure, so don’t let them get away with their Big Lie.
We started winning, they started not winning. We got New Money, they became the Old Money (read: tired money). And just like that, their stuffy sense of dignity became a deep insecurity.
And that kind of anxiety will lead a program to do some goofy things.
Like taking every chance to brag that they call their stadium The Greatest Setting in Football (which gives off huge “Corvallis is the best college town in the Pac-12” energy); or hanging up a “2016 Playoff Participant” banner; or leaving Nike for Adidas just because.
Now, the Huskies’ lot in life is not the average Husky fan’s fault, mind you. Just like none of Oregon’s success is to my credit—except for all the times I wear my lucky hat on gameday, of course.
We are all victims of circumstance. The state we grew up in, the school we went to, and the schools that maybe we didn’t get into.*
*For the record, I never I applied to UW. I was 2-for-2 with acceptances from Oregon and Arizona State, the MIT of Maricopa County.
But now we’ve ended up here, in this endless circle of hatred. It’s a tale as old as time. Hatfields vs McCoys. Socs vs Greasers. Ryan Day vs Lou Holtz.
Oregon and Washington share a border, and were thusly destined to hate each other. To justify every action of your favorite team, and to constantly get a joke off at the other’s expense.
Seeing as how we both teamed up to the Big Ten, it seems like neither of us would have it any other way.
As the saying goes: “My enemy is my enemy, but he’s also got the next-biggest bank account so lets take him to corn country with us.”
I wrote about this last year, but Washington is absolutely my second-most watched team.
I always manage to turn them on and see what they’ve got cookin’. Sometimes that curiosity is rooted in schadenfreude, sometimes it comes from a teensy bit of fear, but all the same, I tune in.
Husky Stadium is also my second-most visited stadium. I’ll be there next weekend to see this game again with my own eyes for the ninth time in a row.
It’s my home away from home if I ever had one.
It’s the familiarity that makes rivalry such a complicated thing.
Luckily, we aren’t losing our nerds from the north any time soon, so maybe they can Husky-splain it to us one day.
Prediction? Oregon isn’t gonna lose tomorrow, and the Huskies aren’t going to win. That’s a good day right?
Go Ducks.
*For anyone that might be wondering, this email is simulcast in “Commitment To The Bit” right here.
Agree