Every year since I’ve been at this school, it’s been the same old story.
USC plays UCLA with a possible national title on the line for the Trojans. Nobody gives the Bruins a chance to win. A picture-perfect setting for an upset creates itself. But the result is always disappointment.
Now, I’ve seen my fair share of big games since I’ve been at UCLA. I was at the Final Four championship game last year. I experienced the football team’s heart-wrenching loss to USC two years ago. And I was at the Coliseum last year when the Bruins were actually playing for something against the Trojans.
But in my 21 years as a Bruin fan – not even as a Bruin fan, as a sports fan – I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a team to win as badly as I want UCLA to win Saturday.
At first glance, that might seem like a foolish statement. The Bruins have already accepted a bid to the Emerald Bowl. A win against USC wouldn’t make the Bruins’ record look that much better. It certainly wouldn’t mean as much to the program as a win last year would have meant.
But after three years of absolute disgust, there’s a big hangover effect that’s been toying with me. Just to think of the USC fans waddling away in their pride, knowing their team is going to the national title game ... just to think of the arrogant looks on the faces of the ’SC coaches and players ... the horrible sight of an ’SC player conducting the loathsome Trojan marching band ... it’s just too much to take.
No doubt the UCLA players, particularly the seniors on the team, feel all of these emotions much stronger than most fans do.
And that’s why this game is so much more important for UCLA than any outsider would realize. It goes way beyond the concept of the rivalry. It’s about way more than bowl games, and numbers and anything else a sports analyst would typically look at.
For UCLA, the result of this game will affect the human spirits of those involved more than ever before.
A win, and the pain of the past will magically transform itself into a state of ecstasy and bliss. After all these years of waiting, finally the UCLA football program will have its big victory. The Fairy Godmother will come down from the heavens to sprinkle every UCLA fan, player and coach with her magic dust.
And on the flip side of that, the Trojan ego will be bruised. Not bruised – shattered. For the second straight year, Trojan fans will leave the Rose Bowl not knowing what hit them, but this time, what actually hit them were the Bruins of UCLA, not the Longhorns of Texas.
It will be absolute heaven on Earth.
But a loss, and the sick feeling comes back stronger than ever. It will reach a point that will exceed the limits of the controls on human emotion.
I, for one, can’t stomach the thought of another loss. It doesn’t even matter how it happens. A close loss won’t give anybody any moral victories. It would just make the pain of what could have been stand out the way it did two years ago. A blowout will not make the pain subside sooner, it will just rub the pain in our faces the way it did last year, and the carryover effect will be even stronger this time around.
So that’s why this game means more to me as a fan than any other game I’ve ever had a rooting interest in – even more than Games 6 and 7 of the 2002 World Series. Because no matter who wins or loses, the unthinkable will happen on Saturday. The pain or pleasure of the experience will be more than words can convey.
E-mail Azar at bazar@media.ucla.edu if you have similar sentiments about Saturday’s game.