I've been to over two-thirds of the Harvard football home games over the past two years, and I've always come out unsatisfied.

Not because of the level of play or quality of the officiating, but there is something missing from the experience of going to a football game here.

Putting it bluntly, the crowd stinks, and it's not because people don't show up. (12,880 people attended Saturday's tough loss to Cornell.)

Rather, the fans are disorganized, uninspired and plainly put, LAME.

There, I've said it.

Sorry if I've offended anybody, especially the truly loyal fans who have flocked to Harvard Stadium for decades. I realize that you don't have the energy to expend cheering or chanting--it's admirable that you come year in and year out, and it is not my intention to hurt your feelings.

And before I get my picture posted in the bathroom of one of Harvard's oldest performing organizations (as my colleague Sean Wissman seems to have done prior to yesterday's Words of Wissman column), I'd like to congratulate the band on a first-rate half-time show and a good quality performance, notewise, on Saturday.

But aside from the halftime show, I can't say that the band's repertoire is something that gets me or most other people involved in the game either.

Now don't get me wrong--I truly like classical music, but the triumphal scene from Verdi's Aula or Dvorak's New World Symphony doesn't have the same effect for me in a football game as it does on my CD player.

How many people started chanting "DEE-FENSE" or made noise when the band played those so-called fight songs?

Not many, and the players most likely couldn't hear anything on the field.

On the other side of the stadium, the Cornell band was very effective in getting its crowd into the game, playing the song where the crowd thrusts their right fists into the air, saying "Hey!", or the cadence before a kick-off that the Harvard band labels as a "High School Band" chant.

Those people watching the game on Prime Network would have guessed that the game was being played in Ithaca if they didn't know otherwise. They must have admired Harvard for holding onto the lead for most of the game in spite of the Cornell fans.

Again, I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone--don't send this column into the fireplace yet.

I will actually try to rectify the situation a little bit, to make going to a Harvard football game more fun for the fan (especially the students).