Looking back on Saturday and the improbable way the family and I wound up at the game and then the way it played out, I am emotionally spent. We were all packed up to go to the FAU game back in October as our only game this year. It was a night game and my daughter had taken the ACT that morning (did I tell you guys she made a 24 in the 9th grade
). When she got home from the test we all looked tired already, my wife had lost her mother two weeks prior and we were still dealing with that as well. I made a proposition to stay home that day and get tickets for UGA no matter the costs. The girls thought it was a great idea as they hadn’t been to a big game at JHS and my wife was relieved at not making the trip that day.
Well, there we were in Section 39 Row 51 after spending the entire day in Auburn. Standing for two hours for Tiger walk, meeting AubieinBham at his tailgate(really nice guy by the way), buying a new season’s worth of T-Shirts at the bookstore and getting into the stadium an hour before kickoff. Great game for the Tigers for so long, then so very depressing and then absolute jubilation. My 12 and 14 year old girls never left their seats. They’ve never made it through a whole game before. They hung on and I thought the 14 year old was going to cry as uga kept running up and down the field in the 4th. She kept grabbing my arm and leaning her head on my shoulder. The look on their faces when Ricardo caught that pass and then when Dee planted Murray was worth every penny, the sore feet, the sunburned face, the guy who spilled bourbon on me...everything. The joy in their eyes and having them hugging me like that is something I will carry to my grave. I told them that when they were at my funeral to remember that if not for this game, I would have lived another year. I hope they laugh when they think of it.
When the limited edition prints come out, and you know they will, I will have to buy two, have them framed with their tickets and give them to them. They’ll still be talking about this game in 40 years like we talk about Punt Bama Punt today. All because we were too tired to go to FAU.
