Why do so many people watch a football practice in April? A Spring Game newbie investigates Columbus’ most curious tradition.It’s insane to have more than 100,000 people show up for a college football practice. Buckeyes quarterback J.T. Barrett knows it, and he’s from Texas. “That’s crazy, y’all,” he says after 100,189 fans filled Ohio Stadium for the 2016 Ohio State Spring Game. Yeah, they capitalize it, even though it’s not a game at all. But then again, what should we call this thing? The last time I was in a place with 100,000 people was a Lynyrd Skynyrd/Peter Frampton rockfest in Philadelphia in 1977, and I tell you this: If those boys had put on a show like the one the Buckeyes did in April, we would have burned JFK Stadium to the ground. Those 100,189 Buckeye fans could not have been there to watch football. The action on the field, once things finally got underway, was incomprehensible. There were footballs in the air, to be sure, and guys in scarlet and gray running around, but there was no discernible purpose. “A practice,” says Barrett after the game. …
Continue Reading: The enduring, mysterious popularity of the Ohio State Spring Game
