This is the greatest bargain in the history of sports marketing (seriously).
I was unpacking the groceries Tuesday at the Genaurdi's on Huntingdon Pike and saw an older lady wearing a Temple sweatshirt.
I see Temple sweatshirts all over the place these days.
I usually don't say anything.
This time, I did. I figured I could because I was rocking my Temple gear, too.
"Temple, huh?" I said. "We've got a big game on Tuesday."
"Football?" she said. "I've heard about it. I've never gone. I'm going to talk my husband into taking me."
"It should be fun," I said. "It's for the championship."
I put my stuff in my car and she put her stuff in hers.
Sold. Two tickets to Temple people for the Temple game.
(Maybe.)
See.
I'm going to bother as many strangers wearing Temple stuff as I can in the next few days.
I hope they all tell me they are going. I hope a lot of them tell me they are first-timers.
Going is the most important thing, though.
Being in the stands, suppporting kids playing football for your university in the most important game of their lives is a worthwhile endeavor if there ever was one.
I don't care if it's 8 p.m. on a Tuesday and you worked a full day and you have to be at work at 6 the next morning.
Has anyone ever heard of a sick day?
Has anyone ever heard of re-arranging their schedule?
How many among us have ever slept four hours or less to do something important?
I think all of us have.
Tuesday is that important a day to us, to the kids who play football for Temple, to the national image of the university as a whole.
Our usual 20,000 in a stadium that seats 70,000 won't cut it anymore.
People across the country will be saying the things they have been for years.
"Same old Temple."
"Yeah, Apathy U."
"We can't invite them to a BCS conference. Not with that support."
Put 40,000 in the house and all those perceptions change.
Most of all, the kids who put their bodies on the line for this university will finally get the support they deserve.
One person can make the difference in the next few days.
Yesterday it was me.
Today I hope it is you.
