Temple Tuesday

Morning everyone!

We are now a mere four days from Notre Dame football

As you can see here, Michigan State is trying to keep
football from us, but has failed. 

The man in the picture above is Lee Becton, starting tailback on the 1993 Fighting Irish and proud owner of this highlight reel:

As we reminisce about yesteryear, the football team continues its preparations for Temple.  Nothing can stand in their way, not even a rash of horrific food poisoning that wipes out the top 23 QBs on the depth chart (HT: House Rock Built).

This doesn't mean, however, that Temple has zero chance of winning on Saturday.  On the plus side of their ledger, they're a real D-1 football team.  With players and coaches and a mascot and everything.  On the minus side?  Well, there are a lot of minuses, but let's just focus on their mascot today.  He's an owl.

Pictured: Temple Owl learns he has to watch all twelve Temple games this year.

And sure, they got themselves a real live owl for this season

The owl, unsurprisingly, is in favor of night games. 

But really, what are owls good for?  I suppose they're good for giving us an entire tumblr feed devoted to Hungover Owls

And getting stuck in the grill of moving trucks

And being assholes to all and sundry as seen here

And, once upon a time, flying straight into a bus I was riding on down I-57 in the middle of the night.  It crashed through the windshield, leaving a hole the size of a basketball in the window and a cloud of feathers everywhere.  But that's it.  Suicide missions, hangovers, and getting stuck in cars is all they appear to be good for.  Unlike Notre Dame's mascot, the leprechaun: 

Who, in addition to incredible skills at cartwheels, flag-waving, push-ups, and general enthusiasm for all things Irish, has written a book.  It's available at this email address, and is an easy way to start knocking items off your Christmas list.

Tune in tomorrow for more on Temple, and in the meantime, enjoy this topical Backer song of the day: