I went looking for a wagon over the weekend. A bandwagon. A football bandwagon.
I thought it would be easy. Bandwagons always roll when teams win, right?
Well, it wasn’t easy.
Wanting to stay close to home — this is Rhode Island, after all — I stopped first at the University of Rhode Island. I was convinced I would find That Ram Bandwagon with a cool ram’s head painted on the side. The Rhody Rams were having their best season in 20 years. They were 7-3 and nationally ranked. They had won their first five games and the Governor’s Cup for victories over intrastate rivals Brown and Bryant. They were in the Football Championship Subdivision playoff picture. All they had to do was fly to North Carolina and beat Elon Saturday, improve to 8-3, tune in to the NCAA selection show Sunday and then gas up the bandwagon for the postseason ride.
But when I got to Kingston, all I found were streamers of Keaney blue and white scattered about the lot. That Ram Bandwagon was dark. Empty. Everyone had gone home. That’s what happens when you lose the finale, 43-28, and finish with a record of 7-4 instead of 8-3.
I returned to my car and drove the back roads north to Smithfield, home of the Bryant Bulldogs and their fab frosh quarterback, Zevi Eckhaus. The Bulldog Bandwagon was still warm after the round trip to North Andover, Mass., where Bryant crushed Merrimack, 58-14. Fans clad in black and gold were still buzzing over Eckhaus’s 317-yard, four-touchdown passing performance that sparked the ‘dogs. This could be it, I thought.
But Bryant finished 7-4 overall, 5-2 and tied for second with Duquesne in the Northeast Conference, so the Bulldog Bandwagon is heading to the garage. Sacred Heart is going to the FCS playoffs.
I detoured to Providence’s College Hill and, as I feared, the wheels were off the old Brown Bandwagon. Engine parts were scattered about and someone had scribbled “Brown Bears? Who Cares?” on the dusty windshield. Cleary, this bandwagon had not seen the road in a long time and no wonder.
Brown suffered through its fifth consecutive losing season after back-to-back 5-5 finishes. The Bears last won more than they lost in 2013, when they were 6-4. They are 4-16 in James Perry’s two seasons as head coach. The quarterback hero of the 1999 Ivy League championship team is supposed to be reviving this program and seemed to be on the right track when his nephew EJ Perry transferred to Brown from Boston College. In two seasons EJ became one of the best QBs in Brown history. He is one of 25 finalists for the 2021 Walter Payton Award as the best offensive player in the FCS.
But consecutive 2-8 records? Defenses that gave up yards by the hundreds (440 per game) and points by the dozens (42 per game)? No wonder this bandwagon is stuck in the garage.
Determined to locate a bandwagon I could jump on, I made my way up I-95 to Foxboro. I had heard rumors of a bandwagon at Gillette Stadium. Whoa! Bandwagon? There’s a convoy of red, white, and blue bandwagons filled with raucous fans marveling over the sudden turnaround of the New England Patriots. Winners of their last five games, the Pats are 7-4 and, if you can believe it, in first place in the AFC East!
The rookie quarterback Mac Jones is everything the veteran and former NFL MVP Cam Newton was not. Cool, calm, confident, accurate. He is reminding folks of the young Tom Brady. The offense is improved. The defense is dominating. Bill Belichick is his old brilliant self. What’s not to like about this team?
I squeezed aboard and elbowed my way to the back of the bus. “Super Bowl, baby! That’s where we’re heading,” exuberant fans exclaimed. Wait, are those guys beat writers for the Providence Journal and the Boston Globe? On the bandwagon! I thought of the remaining schedule. Buffalo twice. Tennessee. Baltimore. Jacksonville. Miami. Hey, just potential bumps in the road, right? Okay, I decided, I’m all in. I found my bandwagon. Super Bowl, here we come!
