It was nighttime in New Orleans, on Jan. 13, 2019, shortly after the start of the fourth quarter of the College Football Playoff National Championship. Inside the Superdome the game was a rout, the LSU Tigers shocking the defending national champion Clemson Tigers 42-25 in a game that didn’t feel nearly that close.
Outside the stadium, in a concrete courtyard with a view of the exterior video board that showed the game on the big screen as if it were a drive-in horror movie, an older woman gyrated and pointed at the image above her, a candle at her feet. Her neck and chest were draped in an endless looping of necklaces, rows of purple and gold beads and another layer of … wait … was that … yes, it was … various animal teeth. She cackled and clapped her hands, one of which held a violet and yellow peacock feather as if it were a conjurer’s wand and exclaimed, “It worked! It worked! It worked! The orange tigers lose!”
Excuse me, ma’am, what worked?
She pointed at the candle, fondled her jewelry, and shrugged matter-of-factly, her twitchy gesticulations never ceasing. “The curse! The curse!”
This Sunday, as All Hallows’ Eve arrives, it shall do so amid the misty midst of a very busy college football weekend. The darkness creepily rolling over America’s campus gridirons like Red “The Galloping Ghost” Grange as the stroke of midnight is heard across the time zones from The Plains and Stillwater to the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Coast. Halloween shall be lurking in the pre-Sunday shadows, waiting for fans as they file out of stadiums and into the night. In some cases, like at Clemson, they will even stroll through stadium-adjacent cemeteries as they leave. (That gives a whole new meaning to “Death Valley,” doesn’t it?) No doubt many of those fans will step out of those coliseums feeling cursed themselves, as this season of upsets continues to befuddle and befall nearly every ranked team, making many a home field feel more like a haunted house.
So, it…
Source : espn
