With the clock under five minutes and any comeback looking more and more impossible, every call that goes against the Jayhawks means something is being thrown or broken. I'm watching the KU game against K-State with my roommates Jed and Charles. With each play that takes the Jayhawks further from winning, Chuck yells, "That's bullshit," as if he's only programmed to say one response. Jed takes a more Gallagher-like approach flipping a chair to the right of our T.V. After subsequent calls, I'm sitting next to Jed as he either hits the couch or kicks the coffee table. I'm disappointed but silent. I don't think anything I say will change the situation.
As the clock ticks to zero tons of Wildcat fans storm the court, and I can see Jed's anger becoming unbearable. I start to become worried about the valuables in our house because Jed now has the temper of a five-year-old with the ability to cause property damage of a 21-year-old. He starts with the coffee table. My beer is the only thing that gets away alive before he violently flips it. He's thoughtful enough to give it to me before he litters the floor with everything else still on the table. As he walks off the rest of my roommates think that he's done before he suddenly grabs our pool stick and breaks it on the wall. We herd him into the backyard only to see that nothing changed except the surroundings. An empty keg shell is the first thing to go barreling into our back fence. Next Jed plays a little game we like to call, see if you can throw a chair over the bush into the neighbor's yard. He finishes by asking the wall with his fists what KU had done wrong in the game. Then finally, he's off to his room to mourn in peace.
There are many different ways to deal with losses. You can yell at the T.V. and at the end just say "Fuck K-State." You can break, hit, throw and smash things until the adrenaline wears off and you begin to feel the pain in your hands. Or you can keep that pain inside and drink. At this point it's just splitting three really depressing hairs.
Our living room, with everything picked up. Pool stick remnants are on the lower right.
Photo by: Patrick Griffith
I can completely see what you are talking about because I live in a fraternity which basically means you have lots and lots of different ways to deal with the loss. One way I saw was to shotgun three consecutive beers. Another was to think about throwing a pool ball into a wall (he was quickly stopped). As I posted my preference was to simply make light of the situation and as the blogger posted after you realize it is just one game.