New Year's weekend was a stone groove. Lady Di and I kennelled the dogs and left the Boro for Central Florida. We had a New Year's Eve luncheon with AndyMan and niece Allison at Uncle Bob and Aunt Maggie's home in Orlando. The Blackfords are always good company, and Aunt Maggie made sure, as she always does, that we had lots of good food to eat. After lunch, Diane and I donned our Florida State University Seminoles gear and watched the Chick-fil-A Bowl at an area sports bar. South Carolina fought gamely, but the 'Noles prevailed. I'm generally a Gamecock fan, and I've boasted of the 'Cock's baseball championship; however, I'm an FSU alum, so I'll happily collect the four or five one dollar bets I'd wagered on the 'Noles. Saturday, we dragged our carcasses out of bed and headed for the Citrus Bowl to watch the University of Alabama Crimson Tide (whose mascot is, inexplicably, an elephant), battle the Michigan State University Spartans. 
There's Lady Di outside of the Citrus Bowl. The weather was perfect. 78 Degrees and sunny. The atmosphere crackled with the hopes of fans of both teams. We consumed normally forbidden food like hot dogs, chips, french fries, and big bottles of coke, and, er, ... dang, where's the bathroom?
Apparently, we weren't the only fans who'd over-imbibed.
Even mascots gotta wait their turn!
The Crimson Tide inundated the Citrus Bowl. The joint was crawling with 'Bama fans. 
And their allegiance runs deep, too. This gal's wearing a shirt in tribute to legendary 'Bama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant. The Bear's been dead longer than this fan has been alive, but she knows all about him. How does 'Bama get fans so loyal? 
They start 'em young.
Like I said...Spartan fans were probably outnumbered four to one. The lot that showed was spirited, though.
Now, that's a hat, right there.
These lads had spirit (must not care for math, though: I tried to get them to spell "S-U-M", and they said it didn't add up).
The end-zone is a pretty cool place to watch a game. Hard to tell how many yards either team got from play to play, but you don't get a view like this one on the fifty yard-line.
...or this. If you want to get a decent idea of how the third best team in the SEC destroyed the co-champions of the Big Ten, then just look at the blocking on this play. The Tide played bigger, stronger, and faster than the Spartans. 
MSU's football team took a pounding, but the band rocked the house at half-time.
The game got ugly. At 42 to zip late in the second half, we joined the throng of Spartan fans in a funereal procession back to our cars. Still, it was a lot of fun (and the Spartan fans took some solace in knowing their team was, at least, the best team in their state, which, as any Auburn fan will tell you, was not true for the Tide. War Eagle!).
4 comments:
Feel bad for Diane!....I've been there. I have throughly enjoyed watching this football marathon though. :) fdb
looked like a fun getaway for you guys.
re:
"I've boasted of the 'Cock's"
-HEY NOW!!
Hi Frandy,
Yeah, a real blood bath!
Except for the score we had a blast. It's very cool that Dave roots for my team and I root for FSU.
Diane's right, and at least the weather was good, Frandy. Two years ago when Russ gave me his FSU/UF tickets the weather was abysmal (and the game was worse). I was still grateful for the tickets, though.
Yeah, Col, I live in a state where mention of the mascot sends howls of laughter through many a junior high school playground (and, truth be told, around office watercoolers). Not so much as a snicker when someone yells, "You can't beat our... Tigers".
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