2016 Gameday Beverage-o-the-week - Idaho State Edition

Each week throughout the football season I'm going to suggest a good beerbeverage for the ubiquitous pre-game tailgate. Let's be honest, with tailgates it's not always drunkenness that you're looking for. Sometimes you just want to enjoy life to it's fullest, experiencing it the way great American Jim Leavitt does.  So, be warned, this week it's not about beer.  In (not) the words of Dave Chappelle as Samuel L. Jackson "IT'LL WONT GET YOU DRUNK!"

I'm calling an audible.  I know I should be selecting a beer today.  Possibly highlighting some brewery from Idaho, of which I'm sure there are some.  My problem is that I'm just morally opposed to spending a good beer pick on an FCS game.  No offense to the Bengals, it's just that... for a punchless matchup, the selected drink should be equal to the challenge.  This isn't a first; if you'll recall, last fall I picked non-alcoholic O'Doul's for Nicholls State.

So, in looking for something game-appropriate, I tried to get to the heart of the matter at hand.  I looked for a source of passion in a matchup that is a challenge for the average fan to get up for.  What I found was that I kept thinking, "what would Jim Leavitt do?"  The firebrand Defensive Coordinator is famously passionate about... pretty much everything, constantly exuding a joie de vivre that is as heartwarming as it is bemusing to watch from afar.  Surely this great man, who has revitalized the Colorado defense, would have the right answer here.

Of course, what Jim Leavitt would pick is Pepsi.  Yep, fucking Pepsi.  He can't shut up about the soft drink, tweeting and talking about it constantly (if he doesn't have an endorsement deal, his agent is really dropping the ball).  Jim seems to love the stuff as much as he does football.  Fair enough, in his honor, I'm naming Pepsi this week's gameday beverage-o-the-week.

I love this image.  From: The Ralphie Report.

I will admit to being a Leavitt-esque Pepsi drinker in my miss-spent youth.  It was the White Sox official soda, so I, in turn, gobbled the stuff up like every over-sugared child of my generation.  Regular Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Crystal Pepsi (which is making a comeback).  You name it, I craved it.

The beverage, which Wikipedia will tell originated in the 1890s, is one of the two principle soda behemoths in the country (you know the other).  It's been around forever, quenching generations of thirst with its dual blasts of high fructose corn syrup and caffeine, and is synonymous with the concept of the massive marketing conglomerate.  Be assured, Pepsi is decidedly not good for you or your kids, as are any traditional American sodas, and really should be avoided at all costs.  However... it's so damn tasty on a summer day.  Poured over ice, bubbles fizzing away, it really can't be beat.

So, if you don't mind putting another step towards an extended relationship with a diabetes meter, why not pickup a 12-pack?  Toast away the last hours of a summer afternoon as the Buffs take the field against Idaho State.  Jim Leavitt would approve.


Happy Friday!  Go Buffs, beat the Bengals!