By: Hero, Inc.
My wife and I have been huge Bulldogs fans ever since we began attending UGA. I was originally the bigger fan, but in time she has overtaken that passion while my deeper allegiances align to the Atlanta Falcons. (Let me also state for the record that I don’t like the nickname “The Ship” for Mercedes-Benz stadium. I don’t have anything better for it but I just don’t like the sound of it.)
Here are some of the highlights & lowlights from our first College Football Playoff experience:
December 9, 2017 (SEC Championship)
May and I didn’t have high hopes going into the SEC Championship based on our previous meeting against Auburn, but we were going to be tuned in no matter what. We were just hoping we played up to the potential that we knew our players were capable of playing. We even ensured we used every bit of superstition possible by making sure we pick up Chick-Fil-A for the game. For most people reading this, Chick-Fil-A doesn’t sound special but we live in San Francisco and all of the closest stores are a 90 minute round trip away.
Well, it went our way and we were going nuts. I’m not sure what the neighbors thought as we were screaming out in victory as the game went on. That evening, we headed to my work’s holiday party where we were quick to point out to all that we saw why we had such huge grins on our faces. On the way to the event, we discussed the possibility of attending the Rose Bowl but knew we should just enjoy this win for now.
Courtesy of SECSports.com
December 10 - 30th, 2017
The morning after the SEC Championship, I woke up early like I always do on the weekend and decided to use this prime time to start pricing out a Rose Bowl trip. Living in San Francisco, I knew that our flight would be much cheaper than those coming from Georgia. Therefore I only had to worry about the accommodation and tickets. For tickets, I went straight to Stubhub and started my search. From friends who had attended a game in the Rose Bowl stadium before, I knew to be careful with seats too far back as the stadium is more flat than extending up. When May woke up, I showed her the various ticket options and we agreed no endzone and try to be closer so we grabbed 2 seats. The hotel was even easier as I travel heavily for work and we used our hotel points to have a free stay near Pasadena.
The next morning I started thinking more about the tickets that we had purchased as I focused more on the layout of the stadium. At the same time, it hit both of us. We had mistakenly purchased tickets on the Oklahoma side but our seats were much closer than we had originally thought they were. So 1 failure was cancelled out by a bigger success.
As the holidays wore on, we started looking at our upcoming trip to Pasadena. We decided to add the Rose Bowl parade to our trip since we weren’t sure how often we’d return for a UGA game here so we should take in the full experience. The parade started at 8AM New Year’s Day which meant that we would need to keep the prior night’s activities short.
December 31, 2017 (New Year’s Eve)
We arrived in LA Sunday evening and immediately made plans to meet up with our Pasadena friends for New Year’s Eve. We made sure to let them know we didn’t want to stay out late as the parade would be way too early of a start.
As we arrived at our hotel, we noticed something was not right, at least not from a Bulldog’s perspective. Yeah, apparently I needed to do more research because our hotel of choice turned out to be the hotel for the Oklahoma football team, alumni, etc. Every turn we saw Oklahoma this and Sooner that. We were in enemy territory. I joked (repeat joked) that I thought about being “that guy” pulling the fire alarm in the middle of the night.
New Year’s Eve was a blast which of course meant we didn’t follow our own warning. We were out way later than we wanted or needed to be and that early morning alarm was going to be brutal.
January 1, 2017 (Rose Bowl Parade)
Yeah, that morning alarm was brutal after only 2-3 hours of sleep. It didn’t get better when we learned our secret weapon (Chick-Fil-A yet again) was a no-go because of the holiday. Being superstitious when it comes to sport, I began tempering my expectations. Regardless, we got dressed in our best UGA colors. I chose to breakout my new red/white vans, gray pants, belt with a bulldog belt buckle, and a SEC Championship t-shirt my family gave me for Christmas.
Now for the Parade, we chose to have seats rather than try to line up along the route and find a spot. Growing up, my mom was always glued to the television for the Parade and I would just check on it here and there. Therefore, I didn’t think expect much for the parade, but I was quite wrong. The floats were amazing to see due to the detail and themes that were incorporated. I ensured that I took a picture of each and then dropped the camera to focus on what I was actually seeing. Second to floats had to be the Kyoto Tachibana marching band out of Japan that had so much flare and charisma. It isn’t often you see a marching band that can do that much dancing but also produce great sound.
January 1, 2017 (Rose Bowl - The Game)
I’ve been to many games in my life during and after I attended the University of Georgia. Prior to this game, some of my favorites that I attended were the Sugar Bowl win over FSU in 2003, defeating Florida in 2004, winning at Alabama in 2002, and defeating LSU in 2004 (loudest game I ever remember). But those and all others I’ve ever seen have nothing on the 2018 Rose Bowl. This was easily the greatest game I’ve ever seen and I was preparing those expectations in the 4th quarter even if we ended up losing. I know that it was such an amazing game when I rewatched it later in the week that I remembered so many of the various plays in the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z91cWiHIf6I (B2 Bomber Fly Over that I shot)
Now I could easily share a play by play of the game, but our story took a different turn. Near the end of the 3rd quarter, Sony Michel scored to tie the game. We did what we always did during every prior score. We screamed, celebrated, hugged random strangers, and enjoyed the moment. When I turned back to May, she was hunched over clutching her knee. I asked if she was ok to which she responded “No, I’m really not.” At that point, I saw some blood running down her leg. In her celebration, she had managed to come down on one of the seats with the right angle and right pressure to create a gash just below her knee. I quickly grabbed a security guard to learn where I could find first aid. Sadly, it was located on the other side of the stadium when I told May she showed me just how bad it was and that she wouldn’t be able to make it across the stadium. After a few minutes I was able to explain this to the security guard who upon viewing the cut realized just how bad it was and called for medical attention.
While we waited, the game played on. With May in her seat, I made sure to give her a play by play call as she was unable to stand. By the time the EMTs arrived, UGA had taken the lead and had OU tie the game again. The EMTs went through the standard review of May, including taking her blood pressure which one EMT noted “was quite high at the moment.” May looked at her with a blank stare that said “Are you not aware of what is going on at this game?” The primary EMT alerted May that she would need to get stitches and my heart sank, but May responded with the perfect question “But do I need to leave now?” The EMT laughed and said no as it wasn’t severe enough but she would need stitches tonight as they could only bandage her for now.
We continued on with the game with stadium staff checking on us to ensure our safety including recommending
moving us to other seats. They were more concerned that if we were staying when it was time to leave that we were not overrun by other people. Therefore, we watched the remaining 4th quarter from the disability seats.
The intensity didn’t reduce at any point after the injury. When we began marching down the field at the end of the 4th hoping to tie the game, I turned to May and said “This is college football. If we go to overtime, we could be here all night.” May just smiled with some pain in her face and said “We are not leaving this.” Overtime came and we were on the edge of our seats. Everyone now knows the result but that feeling still remains the same as it did that night. As soon as Sony made that run to seal the victory, we erupted in our seats. I immediately turned to May and said “Ok, we have to get to the ER now.” She agreed but not before saying we had to have a picture first. This picture is one of my favorites because you can see the pure joy in our eyes and some equal parts pain in hers.
After 4+ hours at the ER, May ended up with 12 stitches, a scar, and an amazing story to remember the most epic UGA game ever.
January 8, 2018 (National Championship Game)
Let me preface this by saying we had the National Championship tickets since mid-December. We didn’t tell anyone and barely mentioned it because I didn’t want to jinx anything. We were able to get the tickets via my Mercedes-Benz Stadium PSL. When the tickets arrived, they were the most beautiful tickets and presentation I’ve seen. May compared the presentation to the butterfly box scene from “Bridesmaids.”
The day of the event, we headed to the stadium in the misting, cold rain. Our particular tickets provided us entry early into the stadium to a VIP event so of course we took full advantage of it. We enjoyed seeing a side of the new stadium we had not seen previously, while also getting a great pre-game meal and drinks. While at this event, there were college football players of past and present. I immediately turned into a little kid upon hearing that Alge Crumpler (the Falcons great TE) was present and that I could meet him.
We all know how this story ends and for many of us it is a painful ending. For me I felt like I had just witnessed my second favorite team doing the same thing that I had seen my favorite team do less than 1 year ago. I’m not sure if it was because of the end result or the differences in big plays, this game isn’t as memorable top to bottom. I couldn’t begin to tell you half of the plays that resulted in this game. I only remember the disappointment when the clock hit zero.
All in all, anything but a win was going to come even remotely close to the feeling and thrill of the Rose Bowl game and even then it might not have happened. We wanted the win, but regardless, we were glad to be a part of this entire Bulldog offseason. With the game, barely even a month old, we are already planning for next year’s national championship game since it will be played here in the Bay Area next year. Time to begin saving and hoping is now….