Right at this moment I’m sitting in the lounge at the Athens Airport (Greece not Ohio). A few minutes ago a guy walks in wearing a TTUN sweatshirt and sits next to me. In my experience, I’ve encountered a number of people wearing those wretched colors who are not necessarily fans of their teams so I’m not quick to strike up conversation. But I decided to give this a shot because, after all, I’m in Greece of all places. How can I resist the opportunity at some transatlantic gloating. I casually pull my block O hat out of my bag and put it on the table facing him and say “What are the odds?” The look of dejection on his face was worth me having to wake up at 4 am and travel for the next 20 hours to get home.

Full disclosure, moments before this happened I encountered a guy wearing a Hawkeyes sweatshirt. I could barely bring myself to look at him.  I resisted the urge to swear at him so I suppose this is karma rewarding me.

The rivalry lives everywhere.