UPDATE: Nice little piece about Grinnell Football on the news that I forgot to put up when I originally wrote this. I was hungry, so I hurried. Sue me. But first check out the video:

I have been ridiculously late in posting a wrap-up of last Saturday’s game against Cornell. This was partially because I am still incredibly frustrated by the fact that we lost when we could have (and in my opinion should have) won. I’m one game into my sophomore season and still have yet to win a college football game, so Saturday’s loss was exponentially more frustrating for me. When you’ve gone nearly two calendar years without winning a football game, being informed that you have to wait yet another week to win is nothing short of agonizing.

However, I do not plan to spend this entire post pining for the win that should have been. We’re already waist-deep in preparations for St. Norbert, who is fresh off an overtime upset over #17 Wartburg. I think we’re good enough to really hang with St. Norbert this Saturday, so anyone picking college football betting lines for this Saturday’s game should be warned.

And today’s practice is Accessory Thursday.

At some point in the history of Grinnell College Football (I don’t know when, I’m the new guy), players decided that if they were working hard at practice they might as well have a little fun with it. So for every Thursday practice we put on the largest amount of ridiculous accessories we can get our hands on: wristbands, visors, shooting sleeves, it’s all fair game. Last week a couple guys decided to roll with a ballpoint pen tattoo. I chose to go this route, and Carlos Sims gave me a “Thug Life” tattoo a la Tupac.

Above:  Just like Tupac, my mama also used to tell me: “If you can’t find somethin’ to live fo, you best find somethin’ to die fo.”

I spent all of practice with the bottom of my jersey tucked up under my pads so that I could proudly display my tat to the world. The doubled-over laughter of teammates and coaches was a reminder as to why I chose the college football route instead of becoming a gangbanger (a popular profession in my yuppie hometown of Boulder, Colorado). The only problem is that after having such a fantastic tattoo in week one (albeit one that wasn’t even my idea), I have to top myself in the coming weeks.

Other players tend to show their accessory-loving side off the field. Freshman LB Trent Chavira (whose last name has prompted me to to begin greeting him like Wyclef Jean in “Hip’s Don’t Lie”) opts not for a bike to ride around campus. He opts not for a skateboard. He opts not even for the safest, simplest alternative mode of transportation (walking). No, Trent rides around Grinnell on a RipStik. He apparently saw this commercial on Nickelodeon and decided it would be a great fit for him:

My cousin has a RipStik. He’s 11.

Anyways, back to the matter at hand: for today’s tattoo (a matter I can discuss because none of my teammates or coaches will know that I posted today until after practice), I’m considering several options. At some point this season I plan on having someone write “Follow Me to the Endzone” on my back (humble, I know). But for today I think I might go the hip-hop route again, with a dramatic reinterpretation of 50 Cent’s “Get Rich or Die Tryin” motif. Whatever I end up doing, I am confident that it will be sufficiently ridiculous.

Questions? Comments? E-mail me at chris@thed3experience.com All original material copyright © 2008-2009 Chris Jarmon

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Posted: 09|10|09 at 11:13 am. Filed under: My Life as a D3 Player.
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