Minority speaks out: What football game?

Some fans are still hurting from last year’s humiliation.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Their quiet apathy and plain old clothing is drowned out by the fervor of the scarlet-clad Buckeye-crazed crowd preparing for yet another national championship game.

This Ohio minority group is bold enough to say the Buckeyes aren’t important at a time when life for much of the state comes to an utter standstill. They dare to say there is more to life than Ohio State football.

“I have a strong belief that, regardless of the outcome of the game, the sun will rise, people will go to work, kids will go to school and 12 billion Chinese people will have not one care in the world about who scored more points,” said Steve Webster of Pataskala.

China in fact is believed to have 1.3 billion people, but the exaggeration illustrates the exasperation.

The Buckeye-weary have been avoiding certain newspaper sections and especially the evening news, which has been a constant crescendo of updates leading up to Monday’s game against the LSU Tigers. Webster is tired of the sports reports that go like this: “The Buckeyes held their 12th practice in advance of breaking for Christmas before before they return to practice five more times before leaving for the bowl site.”

There’s a collective sigh from the Ohioans who don’t breathe football, and the transplants whose apathy has taken a turn toward resentment after months of being surrounded by Buckeye fever.

Steve Croyle, a resident of Columbus’ North Side, said the only antidote to bring down the fever is an extended Ohio State losing streak.

“I don’t own any Buckeye paraphernalia because I’m embarrassed at how Buckeye fans are perceived on a national level,” Croyle said.

That losing streak isn’t anywhere in sight, but even the faithful sense that fans are a little less frenzied leading up to this year’s championship game. It could be that this is no longer the first kiss, or even the second, or that other Ohio sports teams have performed well enough to take attention away from the Columbus gridiron heroes. Or maybe the fans fear being ripped down out of the sky with another drubbing from a Southeastern Conference foe.

“We don’t see as many people getting all excited about Monday,” said Janeane Reining, manager of the Buckeye Sports Zone in Fairlawn in Northeast Ohio.

Then there are those who give what to many is an unfathomable response to the question of what they will do for the big game.

“What game?” said Linda Bolles, who works in Ohio State’s Graduate Admissions Office.