Since I can remember, I have been a sports fan. Baseball, football, basketball, hockey, golf, tennis, auto racing… I have seen thousands of contests… The great wins escape me… The satisfaction of the moment vanishes within a week… The blowout losses, I forget almost instantly (thank you alcohol)… Games like tonight, heart twisting losses, I still remember every decisive moment years after they are played… I have no doubt that on January 5, 2029; I will be able to recite, with agonizing detail, my emotions and the moments of January 5, 2009.
Normally, one cannot see the floor as they navigate through McFadden’s… Tonight, one could see the floor, the tables, and out the windows if they chose to stare long enough… The crowd was smaller… You couldn’t find a chair if you wanted one… With that said, their intensity was exquisite… From the opening kickoff to the final incompletion, they hung on every snap… Celebrating, cheering, cursing, and screaming…
There was a pulse and energy, which was uniquely McFadden’s… The size of the crowd was irrelevant… You could have put a larger crowd in a room of the same size and the communal intensity of this evening could not be matched… For four quarters, I watched the game among friends and total strangers, each of whom craved a victory as much, if not more than I did…
When you watch any game with friends, inane conversations, conversations you look back on and ask why they were had, are inevitable… As Brutus – South Campus version, made the rounds (posing for pictures, hugging the bunnies), one of those conversations occurred between Emily and Sytease… Both are bunnies, both are employed by McFadden’s, and both look like they won the genetic lottery… Yet, as the second half of the second quarter unfolds, they stood there talking about what was wrong with themselves… Let me say, there is nothing wrong with either and if there is a male who does find something wrong with them, they should spend a few quality hours in the OSU Medical Center…
Equally as intriguing (and confusing) was this story I must tell, the story about a girl named Lucky (yes, before anyone google’s it, that is the opening line to a Britney Spears song)… Why am I calling her Lucky? Because I don’t want to reveal her real name and because she actually reminds me of the girl in that song…
Lucky has a boyfriend, but not really, a guy she dates (the same one), but they fight a lot, so I guess this makes her technically single, but she doesn’t go out with anyone else, but she is married on a social networking site to one of her gay friends… If you are lost reading that, it’s not because you are hung over, its because its random as hell…
As the second half progressed, initially with Texas dominating into a 17-6 lead, then into an energy intoxicating comeback as Ohio State pushed ahead 21-17, the passion and the quirkiness of everyone watching was on full display… mine included… I don’t know how you are when you watch a game, but I can’t sit still… I leaned onto a friend, who for luck was holding onto his buckeye necklace the whole time… The bouncer bit his lip; the bunny bartender stared toward the television and then buried her head in her coworker’s shoulder… The intensity of those moments was everything this city is about and nothing that this city could deal with… And then it happened… The strains of Don’t Stop Believing (which was, I thought, an appropriate choice, as it sends the signal that there is always next year) began and the bar began to let out with our season over at 10-3…
I have to update one situation prior to close… I mentioned on twitter that were multiple police cars outside of McFadden’s… there were six… for what I do not know, as only one arrest was made… and as I left, there were multiple police in front of the South Campus garage… clearly something went or was going down, that I have no idea about…
I know some of you are to this point in the reading and you’re asking yourself, why didn’t he talk about the game… I could’ve spent this entire wrap analyzing, lamenting, and rehashing… but why? We all watched the game or followed the game on twitter… Why double the sour taste we already have in our mouths? Why heap additional disappointment onto what was clearly a disappointing season?
Lodge Bar (January 24): Kourtney Kardashian appearance. $3 Soco & Lime shots.
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