“My first cat that I had, name was Sam, but Sam died in, let’s say, 2006,” said University of Oklahoma senior linebacker and cat enthusiast Eric Striker during a recent media interview session, reporters gathered eagerly around him. “Very emotional time. You know, we loved him; me and my brother.”
Sam was, by all accounts, an outside cat. But he was friendly and playful before he met his untimely death at the hands of an automobile.
What does any of this have to do with OU football? Not a blessed thing, and thank the ancient Egyptian cat goddess Bastet for that.
Striker went on to describe the cat he adopted from an animal shelter in Oklahoma City, a kitten he named Django, and how he treated him more like a friend than a pet.
If you want to hear people talk endlessly about a game they barely understand, played by students they treat as characters instead of actual humans, please enjoy any number of Oklahoma City’s sports talk radio programs, public venues or the offices of co-workers you no longer respect.
We Gazetteers would much rather watch and enjoy the games and then while away the afternoon with Striker, learning about the lives and loves of cats. Meow that’s entertainment.
