Today's Sports

A pal of mine sent me a listing of gifts that players receive for their participation in the various football bowl games.

There are some very nice items on the listing, representing a small token to make up for the time and effort that these players put into preparing for the games. Frankly, this is the first time I'd ever heard of the practice. But, I guess if movie stars get gift bags for showing up to the Oscars, it's not unreasonable to see players get some small gesture of appreciation.

For college football fans, this should be a most exciting time of year. We have sacrificed weekends (and some Thursday nights), cheered, screamed, cried and overindulged in greasy hot wings for this. That is right - it is Bowl time.

This is a magical time of year where, for almost three weeks, we have games to watch every day. However, just as we sometimes have too much of the Christmas goose or the holiday eggnog, it might be that we have too much of a good thing in the area of bowl games.

Perhaps we've reached the tipping point in our football merriment.

It's a good thing Santa grades you on how nice you've been rather than on how you play your county rivals. If the jolly elf used that as his measuring criterion, the Minettes and Lady Eagles would have wakened to coal-filled stockings this past Christmas morning.

In a sloppily played game, Staunton River prevailed 36-19. Any Seminole rivals that scouted the game would have come away feeling full of confidence in upcoming games with either of these squads.

Staunton River played the role of rude holiday host, smacking down all who had come over the river and through the woods to the River Rumble wrestling tournament.

Seemingly every Golden Eagle came to wrestle as Staunton River swept its bracket with wins over Radford (66-12), James River (67-12) and E.C. Glass (50-27). That sweep put the Eagles into the championship round against Hidden Valley, which Staunton River dispatched by a score of 57-24.