BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY OCT. 17, 2022) — It’s about a mile and a half walk from the State Tower in the heart of downtown Syracuse to the Dome, refurbished last year to the tune of $128 million. Makes for a delicious walk on a glorious fall day, so many leaves turned shades of orange as if getting ready for game day.

Along the way, THE PLANET & Co. spotted a van in a pregame crowd enjoying sausages, brats, burgers, dogs, and beer — typical pregame health food. United, our group said “hey,” and before you knew it, we were long-lost friends. Suds will do that. On closer inspection, the van had the coolest bumper stick since “Honk If You Don’t Exist.” This one said, keep back 44 feet, with the orange “44” in a circle of blue-lined white.

The Loud House — Some 50,000 fans pack a sold-our Syracuse Dome.

With each step closer to the stadium, we could feel the electricity beginning to build, feeling a little like Nikola Tesla sitting placidly amid his lab being showered by a roaring, electric waterfall.

This would be the first Top 20 football game in the Dome in 24 years, pitting No. 13 North Carolina State against the No. 18 Orange. A sellout crowd of 49,705 (more than 50,000 total) buzzed in anticipation, America getting into the discussion via TV. THE PLANET took our seats. We could see coach Dino Babers in the runway, his jacked-up squad ready to explode out of the (Emlen) tunnel (honk if you get it).

Final score, Orange 24, State 9.

It wasn’t perfect, including too many penalties, but that only confirms the stretch of this Syracuse unit. A big win with national implications while not playing their best football. Syracuse was able to dominate the line of scrimmage, make key plays, and with a swarming “Mob Defense” contain a strong NCS team missing its starting QB. There will be some who want a footnote to this victory because of that, but THE PLANET is not buying it. As Stein Gertrude, mentor to Bill Parcells was fond of saying, “A win is a win is a win.” Parcells also coined one: “You are what your record says you are.” Syracuse is undefeated at 6-0 and guaranteed a Bowl bid.

The day was made especially memorable for the halftime ceremony naming the Orange’s three legendary running backs — each of whom wore the hallowed #44, Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, and Floyd Little — to the Dome’s Ring of Honor. The families of all three attended. Brown sent along a gracious statement beamed on the stadium’s huge TV screen. Fittingly enough, the team’s powerful running back Sean Tucker put the game away with a 25-yard gallop for a score late in the 4th quarter.

Orange RB Sean Tucker ices the game with a 25-yard run late in the 4th Quarter.

———- ooo ———-

Look, we full realize it costs $75,653 for room and board at SU, and we know all about the monetary hypocrisy of the NCAA, complicit colleges and universities, and the rule of the Almighty Quatluu, but a game like yesterday made us forget all that. The atmosphere was enough to engender an ease of delusion, allowing us and our cadre to suffer the lovely illusion that these were just college kids playing their hearts out in amateur competition. Yes. It felt like play, as much as a baritone belting out that “the corn is as high as an elephant’s eye.”

So might seem our gushing praise of an activity that, in the vast scheme of things, means about as much as John Barrett’s next snowfall. Corny?

Or maybe it’s just another sign that there’s sign of young life everywhere, irrespective of age.

Or maybe it’s a dream. Even katydids have been known to dream, for no living creature can stay sane under conditions of absolute reality, as Shirley Jackson wrote so cannily in the opening of her novel, The Haunting.

Or perhaps it’s a dream within a dream, along the lines sketched by Poe.

Whatever, the reveries are worth it at any price.

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“History never looks like history when you’re living through it” — John Gardner.