Band Marches On

In hindsight, I'm glad that I missed Ohio State's visit to Madison on Saturday. All freshman year nostalgia (the day-long party, students storming the field, the spontaneous parade through traffic down University Avenue) aside, we got routed this year. But furthermore, I can die a happy man having never experienced a gameday at Camp Randall without the University of Wisconsin Marching Band.

This issue has been talked all the way up Bascom Hill and down again since the story broke last Friday, and I actually meant to pounce on it a little bit sooner, but this week has been hell at work. And of course, today the word came out that band director Mike Leckrone is lifting the suspension on the marching band, so they'll be able to play at the game on Saturday night.

Not that I fault Leckrone for suspending the band at all. He's been the leader of the UW band since before my parents were in high school, and he built the program from the ground up. Singlehandedly, he turned an unpopular sideshow attraction into "the Hardest Working Band in America," nationally recognized as one of the most elite marching band programs.

So when similar allegations first reared their head in 2006, he treated with them as he saw best, until hearsay among the UW administration, the press and the public created a sensation. Then, in order to keep his job amid threats from then-Chancellor John Wiley, he drew a line in the sand, and when band members crossed that line again this year, he had no choice in the face of that same pressure but to take the action he did.

Was the band out of line? That's a tough call. As a part of the campus media during the first round of allegations in 2006, I took a close look at the subject and talked to a number of people more familiar with it than I. My personal conclusion: the band is wild, wilder than most on a campus where the unofficial motto is "Work hard, party hard." And, seeing as they work harder than most, it's a given they're going to party harder as well.

But my question persisted: was the band out of line? In the course of being the wildest band in America, yes, it seems several of the 300 members, at times, without malice, crossed a line they ought not to have. Among most of the band members, it's likely the discretions went unnoticed. But a few felt alienated by the raucous behavior, as is their right.

However, to infer that the UW band is constantly in a state of uproarious, lewd and inebriated debauchery is an outright fallacy. To suggest suspending the entire band or even dismantling the program ought to be wholly laughable, and it was, for me, until 2006.

For me, the issue isn't the allegations of sexual misconduct (which, if true, shouldn't be happening), nor the highjinks (which shouldn't be such a big damn deal), nor the copious amounts of alcohol consumed (which shouldn't be a source of shame, a but point of pride).

The issue is a glaringly obvious double standard. In the past five years, a UW football player has beat his girlfriend and thrown her down the stairs. Another football player turned a fellow student's face into raw hamburger at what's supposed to be a peaceful annual tradition about beer pong and music. A handful of football players started a brawl in public, punched a cop, then got pepper sprayed and tried to evade the law.

The list goes on, but I'm too proud of my University to enumerate it any further. These are serious crimes that did physical damage to people. They're proven in court, by far more concrete than whispered allegations, and by far more numerous and obvious than the charges levelled against the band, yet no one has even breathed a word about suspending the football team.

And I'm not suggesting the UW football team needs to be dismantled, either. Come game day, I'll be the first one dressed in red and screaming myself hoarse in their support, but I would do the same for the band.

Because as much as the administration, the public and the media seem to want to beat up on the band, they are as much a part of life at the University of Wisconsin as the football team..or any other aspect of campus life.

In fact, I find the band a little more endearing, because they put in physical work that's nearly as grueling as the football team's. Their time-commitment rivals if not exceeds the portion of their lives football players sacrifice. The band certainly outnumbers the football players, and I would say they outshine them hands down in school spirit.

While unlike the football players, members of the band pay their own tuition to attend the University and work their asses off for the betterment of the UW.

the Highly Visible Ex

This may be simultaneously the first and last time you'll ever read me quoting a mainstream rapper, but the shoe fits. As Jay-Z once spat and frat parties the world over played on repeat, "I've got ninety-nine problems but a bitch ain't one."

Unfortunately, the rest of Packers nation and I share one problem in common, and he goes by the name of Brett Favre. And I can't escape the feeling that, no matter how well or how poorly the Green Bay Packers and the New York Jets play this season, he's going to be impossible to ignore.

If I may digress for just a moment. I'm well aware of how sad it is that I get worked up about a game and the affairs of the game's players. I was raised a Packerholic, and I made peace a long time ago with the fact that one of my myriad vices would be a near-obsession with the well-being of my team and its turf-warriors.

It was a combination of force of will and a busy schedule that kept me from commenting on the Favre saga as it unfolded in August. Would they reinstate him, would they release him, would they hold him in limbo? These questions kept me up at night, and I became notably agitated by my displeasure with the way Brett Favre himself, but especially, the Packers management handled the situation.

But even though the end was ugly, it was an end...it was over. The Packers traded an unhappy Favre to the Ney York Jets and I put it out of my mind throughout the preseason and moved on with life. Or so I thought.

I was calling around, trying to get some guys together to huck a Frisbee around at James Madison on Sunday, and flipping through the channels on the TV almost without thinking about it, when there he was: Brett Favre, our ex-quarterback after sixteen magical years, playing in another team's uniform. The phone dropped out of my hand and my mouth hung agape.

It was worse than a slap to the face.

Seriously, the most analogous comparison I can draw to my reaction at that precise moment was the whiplash feeling of seeing an ex-girlfriend from across the bar with another guy. Instantly, irrationally, I was overwhelmed with jealousy. I found myself thinking ridiculous thoughts, like what I could do to win Favre back.

I don't think I was alone in this reaction. After all, Madison's Channel 3 went out of its way to pick up all the New York Jets games for the coming season, so there must be a sizeable number of television viewers who are likewise unable to let Favre go.

But the longer I watched that game, the more the ex analogy seemed to stick. I found myself reminiscing back to the times when Favre wore a green-and-gold uniform. Sure, there were some rough patches, but for the most part they were some of the best years the franchise has ever had. I even found myself wondering if the fans in New York would be as passionate about Favre as the fans in Green Bay, or if Favre could ever really be happy there.

It was something of a relief when the game ended, and I DID get as excited as I ever had on opening day Monday. My agitation doubled as I sat through the first half of a Madison School Board meeting I was assigned to cover that ran simultaneous with the first half of the football game, and I literally sprinted out the doors of the Doyle Administration building to turn on the radio and find out the Packers were leading.

When I got back to the office, I snapped on the TV and relished in seeing my Packers, maybe not thriving, but, getting by under the leadership of quarterback Aaron Rodgers. They went on to eek out their fierce division rival Minnesota Vikings, which made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but I couldn't help but notice the Monday Night Football crew making regular comparisons between Rodgers's and Favre's performances all throughout the game.

This bothered a lot of fans. We took some calls at the radio station today from folks who say they tired of it immediately, but I'm fairly certain they're just in extreme denial. Let's face it, any Packers fan worth his or her salt is going to be tallying Rodgers and Favre's touchdown throws versus interceptions all season long, celebrating if Rodgers excels and mourning if Favre turns out to have been the better choice. For the commentators to ignore it would simply be silly.

It's kind of like the process anyone goes through with the first hook-up after a nasty break-up. Each of us finds things we prefer about the new significant other, if we're lucky, but of course there are always things the ex did better.

I've made my peace with it all. I'm excited to see what Rodgers can do with the team, and I'm happy for Favre and the success he's finding in New York.

The problem is, now that I've begun looking at the situation with Favre in the ex-girlfriend light, I'm unable to stop thinking that way. I find it a little alarming, and I hope to be able to shake it in fairly short order...because having Aaron Rodgers as the Packers starting quarterback is scary enough without having to think of him as a "rebound lay."

And it doesn't help matters that Packers fans are going to be seeing this same ex at this same bar for the next seventeen weeks...at least.