Hail! To the Victors Valiant...

When I was growing up I was instilled with a certain love for the team colors blue and yellow. Okay, fine... call it Maize, Mustard, or Gold -- whatever you like. Coupled with Blue it's a winning combination.

Originally, I am from Michigan. My father is a U of M grad. Hence the early leaning toward the color combo. And, incidentally, toward the best college fight song out there. Hail! To the conq'ring heroes! Hail! Hail! To Michigan. Go Wolverines!

It is a tradition in Tennessee that every year long-known Michigan transplants gather in my father's home for a hot bowl of chili, a cold mug of beer, and the Michigan/Ohio State game.

The color red must not appear unless in the form of a soon to be masticated kidney bean.

I've never been much for football. I'm not a fan. Too slow. Too boring. Thirty minutes to run 10 yards? Yawn. Only two games a year catch my attention. One, the Michigan/Ohio State game. The other, the Super Bowl.

I am, however, a fan of hockey. I'm a relatively new convert. Though I'd seen bits of games on TV, I didn't know much about it until November 2003 introduced me to the game live and with an interpreter. I was hooked. Fast-paced and easy to understand with all the thrill of a good basketball game without basketball's constant inevitable scoring each time the ball crosses half court. One hundred points to 97? Yawn.

No, hockey has it right. The puck travels the length of the ice constantly, but goals are difficult to make. When made, they are worth one point each. And there's none of that play-stopping nonsense for commercial breaks.

In Nashville, the home team is the Predators, a blue and gold expansion team which has graced our city for a mere six seasons, making it to the playoffs in the sixth. Right before the league cancelled what would have been their seventh season. I was in the arena when they won their first post-season game against their most hated rivals, a team from Michigan. A foe wearing red. The Detroit Red Wings. Go Predators!

I'm sensing a pattern.

Tonight I was in the arena again as the Predators beat another red-clad foe in pre-season play. In a time when Katrina and Rita have devastated so many of our stately neighbors, it was not without irony that Nashville defeated the Hurricanes tonight. Four to two.

After the game, I stopped for dinner at my Neighborhood Grill & Bar. Sitting alone at a two-top waiting for an overpriced bowl of pasta, I looked up to the television set offering the night's sporting event -- a football game. The home team wore blue and gold. And the game was in San Diego. Go Chargers!

Though the opposition was in fact wearing red, the color was not predominant. And though the two teams are obviously competitors, I am not aware of any particular rivalry between them. But I'm sure that tonight there were many boos to be heard in Qualcomm Stadium when the New York Giants' quarterback took the field.

Tonight's game marked the first appearance in San Diego by Giants quarterback Eli Manning -- whom the Chargers selected with the first overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft despite a three-Manning (Eli, father Archie, and brother Payton -- pro quarterbacks all) insistence that Eli would sit out a year before he'd play for San Diego. He was swiftly traded to the Giants.

Oh, to have been near enough the TV to hear what commentary must have accompanied that appearance!

Though there may only have been a trace of red in the Giants' uniforms tonight, the red in their faces after a solid blue and gold trouncing will be evident tomorrow.

To which I say, covering three states and two sports: Go Big Blue!

And Gold.