“I loved playing every sport. Soccer, water polo, horses. Whatever. I just loved it. Especially competing against my brothers.” – Nikola Jokic
“We’d fight a lot. But I think all brothers do that.” – also Nikola Jokic
Brate Jokic, who grew up the much-younger brother of two large and tough older boys, both idolized and occasionally feared for his life in the giant shadows he grew up in. The fact that he literally outgrew them, both in stature and as a basketball player, doesn’t mean some part of him still isn’t trying to measure up to Strahinja and Nemanja.
I was born first in my family, and as the eldest child, I have too many of the stereotypical tendencies associated. I grew up with only one sibling, and would love to report I was only ever an angel to that person… But if there is a person on this planet who is aware just how complete and magnificent an asshole I can be, it’s my little sister.
Born 17 months apart, we were both naturally competitive and naturally protective of one another. The protective part kept us close through all these years, but the competitive part certainly gave us our fair share of bumps and bruises, only mostly emotional. She’s still one of the first people I call, and I know that there may be no one on the planet that makes her crazier than I do. She’s one of a handful of human beings I’ve struck in my life (I was four), and also one of the few I actually care to get a hug from. As the little sister, there are ways she’ll always be trying to measure up to someone she surpassed a long time ago, just like Nikola.
But just because I’ve never been a little brother doesn’t mean I don’t know what it feels like to be one.
Electing to stay in my hometown of Fort Collins for college only reinforced the “little brother” feelings I’d harbored for Boulder since I was a kid who could listen to his grandpa talk about how it felt to have been an Aggie instead of a Buff. A mixture of pride and resentment laced his stories, and the years separating our experiences didn’t change any of the feelings of “have” and “have-nots” I had for the kids I’d known from Boulder my whole life. And the way our colleges competed against each other in the most visible sport, football, only served to reinforce that perception. You’ll be unsurprsised to learn I’m a skosh past college at this point, and that CU/CSU football math has never really improved.
In 92 meetings between the CU Buffs and CSU Rams, the “big brothers” have won 68 of them, just shy of 74% of the time. All the Rams would need to do to even that tilt is win every game through 2070. As a proud Ram alum, we’re the “little brothers” to the point that we’re a little damned excited that the game is being held at our place for the first time in 28 years. If the Rams do end up winning, that will be the tiniest bit of validation. If the Buffs win, it will be just another sign to them there is no rivalry, even if there’s a sibling.
If you were looking at it as a Rams fan, a more favorable comparison in long-term head-to-head competition might be with just-as-close Wyoming Cowboys in the 125-year old Border War. CSU leads in the series, but just barely, 59-51-5. That balanced a record shouldn’t give either side any sort of a “have-not” complex. As a resident of Wyoming these last few years, this lovely state feels very much the “little brother” to Colorado in many ways, and delight in using that as motivation to beat Colorado in any way they can.
You’d think that with their single state public University, Wyoming wouldn’t suffer from a big brother complex, but there are smaller colleges and Universities in Wyoming that try in ways to compare themselves to “the U” the same way Cheyenne and Casper and Laramie use their measuring sticks in observing one another. Just as Pueblo does with Colorado Springs, or Greeley does with Fort Collins, or just about everyone in this time zone outside of Phoenix does with Denver. When it all boils down to it, we are all someone’s “little brother”, often not realizing someone else is unfavorably sizing themselves up to us in the bargain.
That younger sibling syndrome is more often than not born out of a real-or-imagined underdog perception, and it drives a whole new set of emotions for anyone competing. If coaches could bottle it, they’d sell the stuff, as giving your team an underdog mentality is one of very few consistent and proven levers over time shown to motivate competitors to performances beyond their usual capabilities. The leaders of those teams tend to believe in it to a degree that even a championship team will seek out the slights and non-believers that might drive them back to another extraordinary performance.
This weekend in Fort Collins, little brothers will go slug it out again with their big brothers, one of dozens of other such contests in college football. No matter how extreme the outcome, simply the fact that the sibling rivalry was fought will make it compelling enough theater to watch and read about.
Here we go, Colorado. Cain vs. Abel. Liam vs. Noah. William vs. Harry. Rams or Buffs, who’s bringing their horns?