I almost turned off the television

Yes, I watched the game. But I almost turned off the television early in the second quarter.  There’s just no benefit to sitting through four hours of unexpected visual pain.

Yet, pain was the primary visual aspect of the first quarter of the University of Hawaii’s football Warriors game against Washington’s Huskies.

Early on, the Huskies got a penalty break and capitalized on it. Warriors down 7-0. The pain began. Moments later, America’s most talented quarterback named Colt, went down. More pain. Washington up 14-0.

Seemingly back on track, a lumbering Warrior ball carrier lumbered without the ball. More pain. Warriors down 21-0.  You know, pain without points on the scoreboard is an ugly thing.

In Hawaii, turning on the kitchen lights at 3:00 in the morning results in a half dozen cock roaches scurrying across the well light floor heading for darker pastures. The lights seemed to come on and Colt and the Warriors scurried down field for a lightning score. 21-7, Washington.  There was hope.

Hope quickly succumbed to more pain early in the second quarter as the Huskies scored again. Huskies up 28-7. That’s when I almost turned off the television. After all, who wants to see teams trade touchdowns for three more quarters and still lose by 21 points?

There seemed to be a little more pain than hope. Yet, like a fanatic moth drawn to the flame of football, Warrior style, I watch. The Warriors delivered. 28-14.

“Hell,” I thought, “Colt and the Warriors only need a couple of minutes to score and there’s a whole second half to play.” So I watched.

As it turned out, the Warriors only needed one minute of the last two in the first half to score yet again. Hawaii owned the rights to Momentum. Warriors down, 28-21.

The third quarter was pure popcorn time. Watch. Wait. Hope. Pray. Curse the rain. Feel Dan Kelly’s pain. The fourth quarter was all Warriors and pure excitement. The defense managed to throttle Washington’s Huskies into Poodles, while Colt and the Warriors did as they did all season. They came back and went over the top.

The gods of pain threw in a few jabs of lightning strikes toward Hawaii’s end zone as Washington made the game ending drama painfully exciting just before moments of ecstasy. 35-28. Hawaii was imperfectly perfect.

And to think I almost turned off the television.