[THE PITCH] There’s a shirt in my closet that reads “The Red Zone.” That’s the nickname for the Stanford students cheering section. Inspired byAmerican football’s phrase denoting the critical area between the 20-yard line and the end zone, for me, this term evokes images of friends dressed head-to-toe in Cardinal red standing,screaming, and cheering for hours during sporting events. I learned in school that “Zone Rouge” was also used in reference to a region of France destroyed during WWI (but that is a whoooole othertangent upon which to stray.) Recently, however, the term has taken a different meaning in my life.

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