Is it denial that keeps sending me back to the Web site of the sports page for my hometown newspaper?

I mean, I live in a city with a robust newspaper. It may not exactly be a paper of record, but the Orlando Sentinel doesn't do any worse for central Florida than the Albuquerque Journal did for New Mexico -- hometown news, local sports, comics that make you want to gouge your eyes out. In fact, the only difference between the two is that the Sentinel is a branch of Tribune Communications, a corporation owned by the Chicago Tribune, whereas the Journal is that rarity, the family-owned paper.

But sports loyalties run deep. And when the Sentinel prints three pages about the Florida football game, I can't help but yawn. I know this puts me at risk of having an enraged Gator Nation showing up at my house and spray-painting my dogs blue and orange, but you can take your Two Bits and shove 'em up your Swamp.

I don't care about the Gators. I don't care that they're in the running for a national championship if USC stumbles. And I especially don't care that Tim Tebow might displace Chris Leak as starting quarterback when the hordes of angry fans finally assassinate the poor kid for throwing one too many interceptions. You people take your college football way too seriously, Gator Nation. And because there's no real paper in Gainesville, guess whose local rag gets to devote 198 inches to your obsession? That's right, mine -- at the expense of my employer's athletic program, a much closer program to said paper than yours, Florida, a program where my loyalties would lie should I care about college sports here.

But. Remember my first but? Gator Nation, Knights of Pegasus, you're too late. My heart belongs to another. It bleeds cherry and silver, and no matter how many times my beloved Lobos make it skip by forcing me to watch close games online, you can never take it from them.

It's not denial that sends me back to Journal Sports every day. Nor is it merely the enormous suckitude of the Slantinel's coverage. It's loyalty. Now I pledge my faith to thee, New Mexico, and never shall I fail. Fighting ever, yielding never. Hail, hail, hail.