To the editor:

On the field at Memorial Stadium during home football games are the football players and the game officials. On the sidelines are dozens more football players and their coaches. In the stands are thousands of fans who have bought tickets to watch a live football game.

On the home team side of the field around the 20-yard line stands an individual who wears a red shirt. On one arm is an orange sleeve.On the other arm is a timekeeping device. He represents TELEVISION. I call TELEVISION “Mr. Red Shirt.”

Everyone — teams, coaches, game officials, bands, spirit squads, fans — obey TELEVISION. TELEVISION tells the players when they can play and when they have to stand around in the heat (or the cold). TELEVISION tells the coaches when their teams can execute the plays they send in from the sidelines during time-outs. TELEVISION orders the game officials on the field and those in the boxes high above the stadium to keep quiet until TELEVISION’S magnificent timekeeping device permits the game to continue.

It was TELEVISION that canceled the downtown Band Day Parade this year by ordering Kansas University to play its next home football game at 11 a.m.

TELEVISION has become college football’s Alpha and Omega.

From my seat in the stands I yell, “Get off the field, Red Shirt.”