Married to a college football fan? I feel your pain

I guess you would call it a bait-and-switch

My husband and I met on a six-month study abroad program where we had no access to television.

Years later, we dated, married and honeymooned all in the football offseason. So you can imagine my surprise when I woke up that first crisp fall morning of our new married life together and was introduced to "College GameDay."

Oh, OK.

So he likes college football, isn't that nice? It's wonderful he likes to cheer on and root for our alma mater. Go Cougs!

I had no idea how deep the obsession ran.

My first error was to utter the words, "It's just a game," after an excruciating loss for the home team.

Rookie mistake.

To a true fan, those four words are the harshest in the English language. I was young and foolish and had the audacity to expand on the idea.

"You didn't lose anything. You didn't sweat and bleed on that field. You didn't blow out your knee taking one for the team. You didn't drop the ball," I said. "They lost, not you. You are taking this way too hard. Let's have a little perspective, huh?"

"You're not a true fan," he whispered after the defeat took all the bravado out of his voice.

I can't help but think, if the reverse were true — if I had some intoxicating, time-consuming, behavior-altering hobby for four months of the year — my husband wouldn't stand for it. Not for one face-painting second.

I've been racking my brain trying to come up with a good comparison, but even at my most obsessed season of "American Idol" watching, the episodes were only an hour long, and I never once texted the word "vote."

So for argument's sake, let's say there's a reality TV show all my girlfriends and I are crazy about. It's a four-hour program, and it's on every Saturday August through January.

The excitement and hype couldn't possibly be contained in only one episode each week, so there's a pre-show show that same day, featuring packages on the various participants, stats and ex-contestants' in-depth analysis on what they think will happen on the show.

Then, of course, a post-game show, where fans would call in, we would all relive our favorite moments in slow motion, and the crazies would rant on and on about how horrible the producers are. You get my point?