Proof that the Red River Rivalry is a big deal

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Notthemama1984

Puritan Board Post-Graduate
Nearly 50 people were arrested overnight in downtown Dallas ahead of the Texas-Oklahoma game, local police reported Saturday, according to The Associated Press.

Police said the arrests were for public intoxication, mostly in the West End section of the city, the AP report said.

A news release stated 300 parking tickets were also issued and two vehicles towed.

The No. 8 Sooners and No. 21 Longhorns play Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET at the Cotton Bowl.

The number of arrests amid the revelry before the annual Red River Rivalry has been kept to a minimum before recent games after a major police crackdown in 1993, the year after a 19-year-old man was shot and killed over a minor traffic accident.

Dallas police flooded downtown with 900 officers in the effort, and in the years that followed the city banned pedestrian traffic on Commerce Street, the former center of Texas-Oklahoma pregame festivities.

As a result, the scene migrated to the city's warehouse entertainment district west of downtown.


Red River Rivalry: Nearly 50 arrested in Dallas before Texas-Oklahoma game - ESPN Dallas

I knew the game was big, but I had no clue that it would require 900 police officers to keep it under control. Be safe, Josh, I know you are headed to Dallas right now.
 
Yes. Because football is a game surrounded by drinking (I know of people who tailgate and are drinking for 8+ hrs on gameday). This is not golf where manners are expected. This is a game surrounded by beer. It is promoted by beer companies, is associated with drinking (you are just expected to be grilling and kicking a cold one back while watching the game), and never shall the two separate. So the more drunk people you have=the more people interested in the game=a bigger rivalry.
 
There weren't many fans on the street downtown Friday afternoon. It's a lot tamer than it used to be (arrests used to be for fights, not for leaving a bar under the influence). They try to corral most of them in the West End (a major bar district) instead of having them wander through downtown. We used to get off early on the day before the game so we could get out of downtown. Yesterday was a full day for most of us.

I even heard a couple of cops comparing notes with a hot dog vendor at lunchtime over the lack of fan sighted.
 
I wonder if the fact that both teams are not that great this year has something to do with it, or if this is the new norm.
 
So a rivalry is judged by the number of stupid drunks it generates?

Yes, and even a "no-longer-really-a-rivalry" game is judged the same way. For instance, Florida beats Georgia just about every year. It's still called a rivalry, and it even owns the unofficial moniker of "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party."

Drunks don't really need a reason to get drunk, but football does provide a easier means to and end. :2cents:
 
I agree about the drunks. Drunks use college football on Saturdays and NFL on Sundays as their excuse. Somehow makes it seem less evil. Getting plastered at 11am Wednesday morning is frowned upon in society. Getting plastered at 11am on Saturday or Sunday is tailgating.
 
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