OBC

Steve Spurrier spent ten plus years as head coach of the University of Florida Gators football team. He only spent two years as head coach of the Washington Redskins. But it shows the difference between a big NFL team and a big college team.

Steve Spurrier grew up in Tennessee, but was not recruited by Tennessee. Instead, he went to Florida where he became quarterback of Florida. As quarterback, he won the Heisman Trophy, kicking a field goal(!) to win a game (he had done some kicking in high school).

When he came to Washington, people made fun of his Southern accent, as they seem to do throughout the country, except, of course in the South (and sometimes even there). Spurrier also brought two phrases that became part of the football vernacular. He brought "old ball coach" (he was the OBC) and "pitch and catch" using baseball terms for throwing the ball.

Even now, years after he left the Redskins, you hear the phrase "pitch and catch" to refer to throwing the ball. Much like "Mother of all X", the phrase derived from "mother of all wars", a phrase attributed to Saddam Hussein (now hardly ever heard, but in its time, a particularly evocative, though strangely foreign way of phrasing the Iraqi confrontation).

They just showed Heath Shuler in a bowl game introduction of the players. Heath Shuler was Peyton Manning before Peyton Manning, but where Manning had a career (to say the least), Shuler was a bust as a Redskins, and eventually decided to go into real estate and then into politics. He looks a heck of a lot like Roger Clemens though.

Today's New Year's and in addition to ringing in the new year, there's a bunch of bowl games (college football games) for teams that did well enough to qualify. January 1 games (and later) are considered the prestigious games. Tennessee plays Wisconsin.