For the uninitiated, the Browns vs. Lions preseason game is named the Great Lakes Classic. Not only does this meaningless game and make-believe rivalry have a name, it has a trophy. That thing you see to the right is the barge, and it goes to the winner.
Now, you probably know that many college football teams have trophies they play for during the regular season. The Brown Jug, Paul Bunyan’s Axe. etc. Geographical rivals, historical rivals, and some pretty freaking random teams, when they win, claim these trophies with gusto. Maybe it’s the youth factor, maybe it’s the earnestness of the college game, but whatever the reason, they charge over to the sidelines when they win and they grab whatever piece of junk they’ve won and they hold it up and pass it on and trot around like they just won the freaking Super Bowl — even when the game features two teams with losing records. See video below.
You see where I’m going, don’t you?
The winner of the GLC should do the same thing. Clearly, it would provide levity and entertainment at the end of this preseason affair, precisely when there’s little to no entertainment anymore. Fourth stringers are in, no one cares, stadium’s 90% empty. Perfect chance for a bunch of guys who might get cut anyway to grab the trophy and charge around the field like lunatics.
Richard Bartel, if you’re still here next year, I’m counting on you.
(pic via No Logo Needed)
This article appears in Aug 19-25, 2009.
Vince,
I was taken to task this weekend because, well, that trophy is not a barge.
According to a concerned reader of NoLogoNeeded.com, flDawg1940: “I believe if you look closer, the trophy is really an ore ship like the Edmund Fitzgerald. Certainly the ship doesn’t have an engine since it’s a model but a barge does not have an engine of it’s own and are flat cargo carrying vessels that are pulled by a tug boat.”
The things we learn thanks to the Inter Webs.