Football Rivalries

Football is still on my mind as the fiercest rivalry of all takes place this Friday night in Jackson: the Jackson Academy/Jackson Prep football game. It is a playoff game, which makes it important enough, but to understand how serious this rivalry is, you had to be sitting in my car with me yesterday afternoon. I was waiting for the boys after school, parked as I always am, on Sheffield Dr., the road adjacent to the football field, when a helicopter gets my attention on a beautiful fall day. I think it is the WLBT traffic copter as the TV station logo is emblazoned on its side,and don't think much about it. However, when it circles back and starts to hover and lower itself above the football field, my interest is piqued. Is it going to land? There are cheerleaders performing routines, elementary kids running on the track, football players practicing--it can't be. Suddenly, its mission is revealed: red and blue pieces of confetti come spiraling downward, like snowflakes from the sky. "Go get the coupons," I scream at Sam, who has just reached the car, and he hurries back to the field. Chilren are running all over the place, thinking the confetti masks candy or prizes like a pinata that has suddenly exploded. To their dismay, however, the confetti simply has mean messages written upon it about the game Friday night: "Remember last year" (a reference to Prep's win in overtime) and "Kill Raiders!" Horrible, awful, evil stuff floating from the sky! As a Duke grad, I didn't think any rivalry was fiercer than Duke/UNC, but I have never witnessed anything as impressive as the hiring of a helicopter to get one's message across!