For dedicated Rutgers fans, there's no quitting during a brutal season | Politi
J.P. DeMauro picked this season to attend every
Rutgers game, home and away. This season, of all seasons.
He usually goes to all the home games, of course, and any game within reasonable driving distance. Then he'll pick one game off the schedule for a more ambitious road trip — this year, it was Wisconsin — and book a flight.
"Well, then I realized that Indiana was the only game left," DeMauro said. "So I figured I'd go to that one, too."
So early on Saturday morning, even with the Scarlet Knights at 3-7 and in the middle of a brutal four-game losing streak, DeMauro will get into his Dodge Dart and
make the drive to West Point. When he gets there, he'll find the familiar faces he usually sees on the road and join them for a tailgate, because the Lincoln Park resident wants to make this perfectly clear:
"I'm not the only one. Trust me."
He said that with a laugh, and the old cliche —
we have to laugh to keep from crying! — pretty much describes the Rutgers fans I've run into these days during a difficult season.
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It must feel like stepping on the front of a rake, having the wooden handle smack you across the face, then taking a step back and doing it again. And again. And again. And ...
Still, the most dedicated fans refuse to give up on this team, and I salute them for that dedication. They are fans like Margaret Sherman, who was setting up her famous Blue Lot tailgate just after the sun rose for a 3:30 p.m. Nebraska game. The delicious ribs.
The block R cookies. No detail overlooked.
They are the few who were still in their seats when
that Nebraska game ended with another loss, even as a few thousand of their Cornhusker counterparts chanted "Go Big Red!" No one would blame them for leaving early, to beat traffic or finish off whatever was left in the cooler.
Still, they stayed. To the bitter end.
I met DeMauro in Ann Arbor. He had taken that Friday off from his job in tech support and driven the 600 miles to Detroit, then stopped on the way home on Sunday to watch the women's soccer team play in State College, Pa., for the Big Ten title.
I asked him the obvious question: Why? What keeps him sacrificing his weekends and disposable income (he estimates he has spent between $1,500-$2,000 on tickets and travel) during a season like this?
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"Obviously, I'm frustrated," the 36-year old said. "Everyone is frustrated. Regardless of that frustration, I'm still going for my love of football and for the guys out there on the field.
"All the other stuff and the nonsense going on, it'll take care of itself. The important thing to remember is that we have these 18- to 23-year-olds out there that deserve the support of the community."
He finds support from the other fans in what he calls "the roving crew" that go to road games. He also finds it from the opposing fans, because they can appreciate what it takes to travel several hundred miles to a game ... and then to sit in the stadium as your team gets clobbered.
And that's the positive side of all this. DeMauro, a season ticket-holder for 12 years, figures he has been to places in this country that he would have never seen had he not followed the Scarlet Knights there. He had checked off his last Big East city the same weekend the news broke that Rutgers had gotten an unexpected invitation to the Big Ten.
"I thought, 'Oh, good. More stadiums,'" he said. He has checked off Michigan, Nebraska, Penn State and Wisconsin already. He'll probably cross Minnesota off the list next year, then Illinois the year after that.
He isn't about to turn in his season tickets after one trying year. He'll be back in his seats in 2016, back in his Dodge Dart to support the team wherever he can drive, and Rutgers should be grateful for him and fans like him.
Steve Politi may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find Steve on Facebook.
