Rodger Sherman became famous for his takes on college football without ever leaving his couch. Over the past decade, he watched and wrote about hundreds of games, but only rarely had a chance to actually cheer along with fans or eat at concession stands.
Earlier this year, Sherman decided that he desperately needed to visit the stadiums he’d spent hours watching on TV, even if it meant forgoing a paycheck and being away from his wife and dogs for long stretches. He quit his job at The Ringer and started planning an exciting, exhausting, almost unbelievable college football road trip.
“It’s terrifying and exhausting, but it’s also incredible. I’ve always wanted to do something like this,” said Sherman, who attended journalism school at Northwestern University but never had a traditional sports reporting job at a paper.
On our call, I asked Sherman about how he plans each weekend’s journey and what he listens to on the road. I asked him about his experience at Utah at the end of August and at BYU last week. And I asked him to tell me, a sports and religion writer who works from home, why it’s worth it to leave the couch.
Here’s what he said.
Kelsey Dallas: Why did you want to do this?
Rodger Sherman: I’ve been
Sherman: I’ve been writing about football for about a decade, but it was more like blogging. It didn’t involve a lot of travel.
About college football is that the environments are very special. The atmospheres are incredible. You can see the mountains by the Utah and BYU stadiums on TV, but you can’t fully appreciate them unless you’re there.
After seeing all these places on TV that I needed to go and actually see what they were like. I wanted to feel what it was like to be in the crowd, not up in the press box or on my couch.
KD: Is it living up to your expectations?
RS: Absolutely. I’ve gone to 15 games so far, and I still get a rush when I get into a stadium and see 60,000+ people wearing the same color of clothing. It’s a wall of color and noise.
Place is unique. Every place has its own feel to it. It doesn’t get tiring, because every place has something you’ve never seen before.
KD: How do you pick which games to go to?
RS: A few factors go into it. The most important thing is what games are happening on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. There aren’t a lot of games on those nights, so you choose one and map around it.
Factor is whether I know somebody with an extra ticket for a game or somebody who lives near a game who will let me sleep on their couch. Convenience and money are pretty heavy factors.
Then there are also just a few games that I’m going to go to no matter how much it costs because I’ve always wanted to see them.
That includes some rivalry games that won’t exist any more after this season because of conference realignment, like Oklahoma-Oklahoma State, Oregon-Oregon State and Washington-Washington State. Seeing those games this year will be a once-in-a-lifetime moment.
KD: Do you try to sit in a certain spot in each stadium?
RS: I’m just looking for the cheapest ticket. I don’t need the seats to be good, since being in the stadium and feeling the atmosphere is as important as being close to the game.
High seats are awesome at Utah because you can see the mountains over the rim of the stadium. I was totally fine not being down by the field.
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