Back in high school, on the day before a homecoming game, our cheerleaders hung up a sign that said something like, “Go Bengals! Beat the Warriors tonigt!” You probably noticed the problem, of course: they left an “h” out of the word “tonight.” The cheerleading coach also happened to be my U.S. government teacher, and I remember giving her a hard time that day. Not only was it a funny mistake, it was also done by a bunch of cheerleaders, who as a group aren’t exactly known for their spelling. All of which made it more noticeable.Ten years later, it’s one of those random things I remember from high school for no apparent reason.

Today, while I was watching the AFC championship game, I noticed a group of fans who’d made up a giant doll. It had a skull for a head, and I guess it was supposed to be an effigy for the Patriots or something. On its chest, they had written, “Your dead Pats!!!” I kind of did a double take when I saw it, wondering if CBS really just showed a bunch of stupid Indy fans with a misspelled sign. Luckily, I can now pause and rewind my TV, so I could verify that, in fact, they had. And it wasn’t a small sign either; these guys had put some work into it. I can imagine them sitting around making it talking about how “awesome” it’s going to be. And they even managed to get it on TV. I wonder when (or if) they’ll realize their error. I think this kind of misspelling is even worse than the high school cheerleading one. Leaving an “h” out of “tonight” could be a typo. Using “your” instead of “you’re” probably means they just didn’t know any better.

I feel a little bad making fun of these guys for poor spelling, when I’m not perfect myself, but hey, I didn’t get on TV. You can go here to see the full image of the guys with the sign. Sorry for the poor image quality, but I was taking a picture of my TV, which is difficult to do.

Update: In case it seems like I was just bitter about the loss when writing this, I figured I’d note that I actually wrote it at halftime, when the Patriots were still ahead.