Despite the rather disappointing lack of victories Cal football has provided us with, hordes of students and fans still show up to each game bleeding blue and gold and screaming “Bear territory!” at the top of their lungs. And why is that? Aside from the fact that all Golden Bears are freakin’ awesome, cheering our teams on is the closest a lot of us will ever get to being a college athlete. And boy, do we have a slew of reasons we want to live vicariously through them.

1. They have fans. Uh, hello. Basketball and football players have fans screaming their names from the stands! Granted, sometimes said fans are cussing players out instead of proclaiming their undying love for them, but it’s all in the spirit of the game.

And little kids still love you no matter what.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. They get to model. Athletes are photographed for all sorts of promo stuff. Forget cereal boxes; posters and game-day introductions on a giant screen are where it’s at. Their faces are blasted everywhere, and you see their team photos all over campus. If that’s not fame, we don’t know what is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
3. They’re on the news. Speaking of fame, did anyone see that Fox Sports set up camp on Bancroft for the Cal-Ohio football game this weekend? You don’t see news reporters flying in to interview you on your latest bio lab, though that’s probably for the best.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. They get cool gear. Don’t you always envy those people walking around campus with “Cal Soccer” on their backpacks? Not only do they get material perks for their sport, they get to flaunt it, too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. They have early Tele-BEARS appointments. As course registration is often an absurdly stressful process for students, this perk hits especially close to home. Having an early registration appointment would help you get into those popular and packed classes, but most of us aren’t so lucky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. They get to travel. Football games have been at home lately thanks to our vamped-up Memorial Stadium, but that’s not always the case. Sports teams get to travel all over the place for games and competitions. And professors seem willing to give them lenient extensions on project deadlines, unlike when you beg for more time after an especially wild weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. They’re one degree of separation closer to Olympic athletes. We’ve talked a lot about basketball and football, but what about the other amazing athletes Cal has to boast? Even if an athlete isn’t on a team with an Olympic star, being an athlete makes them closer to these legends than the rest of us! Besides, they probably have more of an excuse to check out Spieker than the run-of-the-mill Adrian fan/stalker does (I wasn’t staring, I swear!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. They’re fit. We guess this is a given, but have you SEEN those Cal-backpack-toting kids on campus?! They probably don’t even count walking across our hilly campus as their daily dose of exercise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image sources: yougotocal, jennconspiracy, MsSaraKelly under Creative Commons, staff, invalidate, yougotocal, whatshouldwecallme, staff, yougotocal.