The Lord and the BCS Championship Game

Glendale Arizona January 10, 2010

Finally back doing the blog thing..sorry to all my readers for the hiatus.

Here I am at the BCS National Championship Game, son Jon at my side, great seats and hoping that the Oregon ducks will beat the favored Auburn Tigers for their first national title.

Earlier in the week these seats were selling for over $6,000 each and more than $4,000 a couple of hours before the game. Football fans are crazy and I guess I am as well for not selling the seats, but the thought never crossed my mind ( well almost never). Thanks again to my friend Larry the Judge for getting me the tickets. He knew this was a "bucket list" item for me and being at the game for me was "priceless".

What does the Lord have to do with the game you might ask. Nothing, in my opinion. The Lord, I suspect, had nothing to do with the tragic shootings of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and others in Tucson just a couple of days before and his/her intervention in a football game would be highly doubtful.

My reference to the Lord and football is only to put perspective into the role of football in Alabama (Auburn) and Oregon. This is not to say either is better but merely how football, like the Lord, is so much more a part of to the culture and lifestyle in the deep South versus the Northwest. I will get back to that in a moment, but first a bit about the day and the game.

What a day it was. Perfect weather. Temperature in the mid-sixties and not a cloud in the sky. We arrived five hours before kick-off and already the parking lot was buzzing and almost filled with tailgaters from both sides. Jon and I went to the game with his college roommate Justin, a photographer/writer for Vanity Fair and his Dad, Bob. We had not seen each other for a few years but we reconnected easily and it was reminiscent of the fun times we shared in Eugene when the boys were at the U of O. Jon and Justin have stayed in touch consistently since their graduation in 1999 even though they live on opposite coasts.

Justin was on a mission to take shots of the fans for perhaps a piece in the magazine and I tried to act as his "spotter". I used this as excuse to introduce myself to perfect strangers in the parking lot. Not that I needed an excuse, everyone was so friendly. This was going to be a fun day.

Like the Rose Bowl last year, every one seemed to be in a happy, festive mood. I love this about college football, not corporate at all like the NFL. The Auburn and Oregon fans mixed easily..no animosity between them at all. Walking through the parking lot with my bright Oregon shirt, I was offered food and drink from Oregon and Auburn fans alike.

Two encounters among many stick in my memory. Justin and I approached a group of Auburn tailgaters cooking up some really good BBQ. In the group was very large old man in a wheelchair and his wife. Turns out she was an Auburn cheerleader in the 1940s and her invalid husband was a star on the team. It was clear that time was not a friend to either one of them (perhaps too much BBQ) but you could see and feel this was a special moment for this couple, an experience they likely would not have again in their remaining years together. They would soak in every moment and support their Auburn Tigers like they have for almost 70 years! Now that is special, no matter who you root for... or even if you think the Lord is calling the plays.

Another fan I met was dressed like many in the Auburn crowd, khakis and an Auburn

button down long sleeve shirt. I asked him to explain to me the "War Eagle" tradition that is on lots of the Auburn paraphernalia and their other "mascot". He explained that in 1892 (yes 1892 in a stadium that must have been filled with Civil War veterans!) an eagle started circling the field during a game Auburn was trailing in the fourth quarter. Auburn came back, won the game, and a tradition began. Now Auburn has a real live Bald Eagle as a mascot and the eagle is trained to circle the field before every game starts. When I asked my new Auburn friend the similarities between Princeton and Auburn, they both have Orange and dark blue/black colors and are both "Tigers". "We are similar", he said with all his Southern charm, "Princeton is the Auburn of the North!"

So back to the "Lord" stuff. When I finally got to my seat in the stadium, we were in a mainly Auburn section, I sat next to a friendly woman who was there from Birmingham with her two daughters, students at Auburn. It was her first time and Arizona and she did it right visiting Sedona and The Grand Caynon among other places. When we started talking about the Auburn and Oregon coaches, both relatively new and young, she said how happy she was about the fact that the Auburn coach was a great believer in the Lord.. I smiled and said that was great but the immediate thought that came into my agnostic mind was Kevin Costner's famous quote in Bull Durham " I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening presents Christmas morning not the night before and I believe in long, slow,deep.soft, wet kisses that last three days." I passed on sharing my thoughts with her.

Football is like religion in the Deep South and an integral part of the culture. Families feud over college rivalries, kids are named after players and coaches. There are unofficial dress codes in many stadiums. Bands and cheerleaders are taken very seriously. They have actual formal cheers. Game days are really big deals. These are great traditions that have survived for years and years. If you were transported back 50 years and wound up at a game at Auburn or Alabama, much would be as familiar as it is today..with one big exception. Ten of eleven Auburn players on defense and ten of the eleven on offense were black. Enough said about that.

The game was not the high scoring affair most experts expected as both defenses played exceptionally well. Auburn's size advantage was obvious and they were able to stop the Ducks near the goal line three times. The Ducks held the Auburn Heisman Trophy winner, Cam Newton in check for enough plays that with four minutes to go, The Ducks were down by only eight points 19-11. Oregon got the break they needed when Newton fumbled at his own forty.

What looked like a sure Auburn win and National Title was now in doubt. A few plays later LaMichael James scored on a nifty shovel pass and the Ducks were now in a position to tie the game with a two point conversion. Darran Thomas, the Oregon quarterback, and just a sophomore, went to his right and threw across the field to the back left corner of the end zone where Jeff Maehl made an amazing leaping catch and the score was now tied! What a play under incredible pressure! The catch reminded me of Dwight Clark's immortalized reception for the 49ers to beat the Cowboys for the NFC title in the eighties.

The Auburn fans stood in shocked silence... but there was still more than two minutes left on the clock for their team to score and take back the lead. And they did it. On a fluke play of sorts they got off a 40 yard run to put them in easy field goal position and with the clock expiring, the ball floated thru the up-rites and Auburn had their title 22-19.

The Ducks had their chances but it was not to be. We were all disappointed with the outcome of the game, but the day was still an 11 on a scale of 10. Had Auburn lost, I believe their fans would have been devastated. For the Oregon fans it was a tough one but easily put into perspective along with a great undefeated regular season. When the woman next to me started crying in joy over the Tigers win, I truly felt happy for her. All the Auburn faithful around us told us how nice the Oregon fans were and how great a team we had. One woman asked me if the Auburn fans were polite enough for us…I answered, “Are you kidding, of course you were” . Exiting the stadium in my Oregon glow-yellow jersey, Auburn fans were shaking my hands congratulating the Ducks on their fine effort and saying Oregon was the best team they played all year. One stranger actually hugged me. I thanked them all and invited all I could to come back to Arizona and enjoy our beautiful state.

For good reason, Oregon has become a fan favorite across the nation because of their style of play and their colorful, ever-changing, uniforms. Oregon's football is traditional in the sense that their tradition is all about change. Oregon football is hip, stylish, fast and not afraid to take chances. You can't predict what kind of uniforms they will wear on any given game day (over 500 possible combinations) anymore than you can predict the bounce of a football or whether or not they will fake a punt.. Oregon football is a visual feast and rarely disappoints. I have friends in Philly, Boston, Miami and even in New Zealand who are Duck fans because they are so much fun to watch. Two young Auburn fans in front of me told me how they and their friends follow the Ducks even in Alabama. And they LOVE the UNIFORMS!Thank alum Phil Knight and Nike for this, but also thank him for the Law School building, student rec center and state of the art library.

After the game Oregon's coach Kelly graciously congratulated Auburn University, praised the event organizers, the Auburn players and his own team for a great season and effort. Always positive, Kelly said we will get back to work in the spring and try to get here again. Don’t dwell on the past, learn from your experience and move on…what a great example to set for his players and the rest of us.

I really wanted to win this one, but this was definitely a bucket list day and all the fans I interacted with were as much a part of the day as the game. Oregon and Alabama are as politically different as you can get, yet on this day, you would never know it by the friendliness of the crowd.

Over my life I have accumulated lots of "stuff" but I am getting to the point where I realize the best kind of "stuff" is not tangible. January 10th 2011, I made a huge deposit in the Bank of Great Memories.