This morning, I ended up in the thick of a Twitter back-and-forth between Rutgers fans. It’s not that long a story to explain how I got there, but I’ll say it’s a long story, because it’s not a particularly interesting story and I don’t want to tell you something that will bore me writing it.
As far as back-and-forth’s between fans of the same team go, this was a conventional affair. The participants were in agreement with one another, but each perceived the other to believe they were in disagreement. There were some numbers thrown in. The conversation quickly pivoted in unexpected directions. All good fare—the healthy side of Twitter, giving people a channel through which to express their fervent emotional connections to thankfully something that will not lead to a war. It really wasn’t that notable, except it made me feel like I had people on side-tangents in my mentions (a wholly unfamiliar feeling to an NIT blogger).
But then, at some point in the middle of it all, one of them said, “I bleed scarlet,” and while I’m not the most up to speed on the pantones of bodily fluids, I think it’s very possible that literally all of us bleed scarlet. Which created two other thoughts:
- “Man, red teams really have to dig a little deeper for angsty phrases to put on merchandise.”
- “Did Rutgers name themselves the Scarlet Knights because they didn’t expect fans to care enough to say they bled green or something?”
I’m not saying this is what happened, but I’m saying it’s reasonable to believe that at some point, decades back, a guy in the Rutgers athletic department said “Hey Jim, got a great idea,” and Jim said, “What’s that, Roger?” and Roger said, “You know how teams say their fans bleed their colors? Like a team called the Tigers might say their fans bleed orange and black?” and Jim said, “Yeah.” and Roger said, “Well, I don’t know if anyone would believe us if we said that about us,” and Jim said, “Yeah, you’re probably right on that one,” and Roger said, “But what if we made our primary color scarlet?” And Jim said “Great idea, but should it be crimson instead?” and Roger said, “Hmm, maybe so,” but they ended up going with scarlet.
Just a thought.
