This post is a question only. Please don't expect an answer. I grew up in Gainesville but never attended UF. In fact, two of my college degrees are from Gator rivals--undergraduate at Sewanee, an original SEC member, and a graduate diploma from Alabama, a team Sewanee beat six times in a-row. That said, my father was a 50-year UF professor and my high school was run from Norman Hall.

The few who have read my posts here over the past 15 years know that I pride myself on attending UF football games wherever they occur. I average witnessing about nine games each season, attended all of our MNC matchups, was at every game in 2008, and saw the Twelfth Man first-hand last year. 

Something has changed, though. Last week, as I sat in the Swamp with my 92 year-old dad in nearly matching temperature, I looked at him just before halftime and asked, "If the Gators score again, do you want to go home and watch the rest on TV?" The WW2 and D-Day veteran was not about to say yes. Instead he said "Whatever you want to do." Well, I wanted to go home--to his air conditioned house with an HDTV and watch the rest of the game with my wife and mother, age 89, who had no inclination to fill their seats in that heat for a game against Toledo the first place.

Well, the Gators scored a touchdown and we left. You don't realize how big this was. I have never left a UF game early. Not upon seeing Pat Sullivan and Terry Beasley clobber us 63-14 in 1970, losing 52-17 with Deion Sanders kicking his feet up in laughter at Doak in 1988, or watching Nebraska take a knee on the goal line after Tommy Frazier dispensed with every Gator defender on a single run earlier in the Fiesta Bowl.

Which brings me to this week. I had long intended to see UF-Miami in-person. I sold hot dogs at their 1968 game, listened to Otis Boggs call the famous 1971 flop, was on the sideline with a camera to photograph Jim Kelley in 1980, and even ventured to our 2001 Sugar Bowl loss against them--but I've never attended a UF-Miami game at the Cane's venue.

Now, I don't really want to go. It is a nine hour drive. Joe Robby Stadium (or whatever it is called now) was nothing special when the Gators played Maryland In the Orange Bowl.  Broward County is a snooze, and nobody I know in middle Georgia would travel to it with me.

More than that, though, the fire to attend is gone. I don't know why. Perhaps it is being over 50. Maybe its because we are not locks to win anymore. Heck, it could be because I don't want to miss watching Georgia lose while driving back.

Perhaps I am learning Gator loyalty is not measured by whether somebody graduated from UF (which I knew) or if they attend games (which I really did not). My mother and father may never again see the Gators play in-person, but there are no better UF fans. That said, I am much younger and feel like I suck as a Gator fan. I don't want to go to Miami and don't know why.

See you next month in Missouri, though.  Have tickets, a room downtown, and great flight times. Who could miss watching the Gators play for the first time at Forout Field? Any of you who stay home must not be real Gators.

Gator tickets.  He'd go to a game here or there, but I could see the passion didn't seem to be the same.  I didn't understand it.  Years later, well into my 50's, 1000 miles away from Gainesville, I now think I do.

I grew up in Williston.  My folks had been Gator fans long before I was born.  My mom worked at UF for decades.  They had season tickets.  I began following the Gators when I was 7 and attended Florida Field for my first game at age 9.  I went to UF.  I had my own Gator season tickets (until this year) for 35 consecutive years.  Attended every game in the 1989 season.  Only missed one Cocktail Party (for a family funeral) over a span of 34 years.  Been to games just about everywhere .... the old Orange Bowl, Doak Shambles, the old Gator Bowl, Athens, Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Auburn, Baton Rouge, Knoxville, Columbia, Nashville, Oxford & Starkville and many more.  Went to countless bowl games, including our first national title.  Personally witnessed our SEC Championship Games, including the first 2 in Birmingham.  I lived and breathed Gator football (and basketball, too).  I never missed a game in the 20+ years I lived in Gainesville or Daytona Beach.  Drove down regularly from Atlanta and Birmingham, too.  Many were the weeks in autumn when I was still hoarse on Wednesdays.  Over the years I met many wonderful people and enjoyed countless joys and heartaches, and wouldn't trade a minute of it.

I still love the Gators.  But my life no longer revolves primarily around Ben Hill Griffin stadium and its resident team.  I go to games occasionally now. And it's okay.  I voluntarily paid my "dues", literally and figuratively. Younger Gators will pick up my "slack", if you will.  So, enjoy the time you have with your father (and mother).  There is no need to apologize to yourself, your parents, or to others.  Go Gators!