IT’S A CRISP FALL SATURDAY and we all know what that means: Husbands and wives at each other’s throats. Parents vs. the children. Brother against sister. Households in an uproar.
Yes, it’s college football season again.
For some, sure, it’s just another great autumn weekend with everyone in the family rooting for the same side. But for others, football Saturday “is a very volatile time.”
That observation comes from Stephanie Jeffers (University of Nebraska ’96) who ought to know. With her husband, Jay (Texas Tech ’96), she runs an online company that provides flags to allow inflamed football fans to stop fighting about whose college team is flying high.
The Jefferses’ Internet company (housedividedflags.com) was born of necessity. Like so many fractious families, the Jefferses take their college football extremely seriously.
So when the Huskers played the Red Raiders, there were some, let’s say, “pointed” conversations about which college flag would fly at the Jeffers house on game day.
“We had a need to divide the pride we both had for our schools,” she says in a flurry of understatement. Next came the company, which sells custom-order flags starting at $64.99.
Now they have a flag split evenly between their two teams and harmony reigns. Sort of. At least this resolved one small part of the ongoing football arguments in their home. For families that have more colleges to split their loyalties, the company can provide flags with as many as four schools sharing space.
Of course, these flags don’t have to be just about sports rivalries. The example shown here, the University of Missouri and Southern Illinois University, has nothing to do with the Tigers and the Salukis. The schools’ football teams don’t play each other.
It was a gift to the parents of young men who had recently graduated from those two fine institutions. The parents promptly hoisted the flag to celebrate something even more precious than a gridiron victory: no more college tuition payments.
Touchdown, Mom and Dad.
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Read Ellen’s shopping adviser column every Thursday in the Tribune’s At Play section and join the conversation at chicagotribune.com/ellen. shopellen@tribune.com
