I don't blog here anymore.
I blog here.
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Saturday, October 11, 2008
An Atypical Typical Gameday
Sports Role Reversal at its worst
For many Madisonites Badger football games over the last 4 years can be summarized in a similar manner:
- Wake up to the crescendo of Steve Miller's "Swingtown" at 7:30 in the morning, a conclusion to your 4 hours of low quality sleep.
- Somehow in a foggy haze you managed to shower and put a red shirt on not backwards or inside out. A pair of feats that quite frankly surprise you deep down.
- Although your brain is still 80% not functioning, your body has led you to into a bar by 8:15. Your breakfast: a blood mary. It's okay - it came garnished with celery AND a pickle. You're fighting that whole taste aversion reaction your getting because somehow this glass of tomato, fire and poison is causing your headache retreat.
- Head toward the friend of a family member's friend's co-worker's tailgate because you've been assured the drinks are free and Aunt Peg's taco dip is to die for. On the way there you follow suit and partake in drinking out of beer bongs falling from the sky as if you were getting abducted from creatures from Sudszon.
*4 hours of dead space scattered in with the occasional 15 second memory of having really heart-felt conversations with complete strangers*
- Make the long walk home from the stadium having "seen" your team beat up on an under-matched opponent by 5 TD's and a field goal.
Maybe us Badger fans are spoiled, but when the Badgers step foot onto Camp Randall winning (usually big) is the rule, losing is the very rare exception. In my four previous years as a Badger football fan, this rule was broken one time. ONE. Our record was an unimaginable 25-1. You quickly get accustomed to your team using the other team as a punching bag. You enjoy the win, but the joy disappears quickly due t0 a deep rooted expectation of victory. Football at Camp Randall leads to Badger victories just as flipping a light switch leads to the emergence of light. Well the hardwiring in my body feels askew because there has been darkness for consecutive weeks. When you win, and are used to winning, you don't put much thought into what the other team's fans must feel. My basic assumption is they deserved it for playing us - if you stick the fork into the electrical outlet, you know what you're going to get.
Fast forward to Saturday October 4th 2008. After last week's meltdown vs. a surprisingly bad Michigan in the 2nd half - the comfort of seeing our team on the home turf brings an inner confidence back in our team. Forget that Ohio State is ranked 14th - four spots ahead of us - things like statistics and talent seem to fall by the wayside when inside CR. Fast forward again to Ohio State's last drive of the game. Our previous drive saw us march down the field to score the go ahead TD. We're a defensive stop away from upsetting the higher ranked OSU. A blink of the eye later and a dejected Badger team walks off the field wondering how they let victory slip away. A very tough loss - but still it could be worse than losing by a field goal to a top 15 team.
Now it's the following weekend, Saturday October 11th. Penn State, a more talented, higher ranked opponent than the team that beat us last week, is in town to be the 2nd of our back-to-back night, elite, Big Ten matchups. Logic would say because we've lost the previous two weeks, a loss is a very real probability. However, logic takes a back seat to behavioral conditioning on this day. Home football games still translate to Badger victories on the conscious of the fan....
48-7. We. Lose. By. 41! Like one day waking up with gills 2 leagues deep in the sea, it doesn't take long to let the shock take control. I'd keep writing about where my current college football emotions are, but it would be a heavily misguided rant based off of an instinct of panic.
Instead I'll let you be a part of my day....
1:26pm - Show up ready for a full agenda of game-day duties. We're hosting a tailgate for 500 sponsors in Hall-of-fame park and much still has to be set-up. It's the middle of October in Wisconsin and it's 78 and sunny. Me, a fellow intern, and the sales co-ordinator gameplan what needs to be done and in what order.
3:05pm- The tailgate is beginning to look closer to presentable. We've clothed and put programs on every table. When we go to the normal delivery area for where the Coke gets dropped off, nothing is there. The delivery is late; three days late. Although at Wisconsin tailgates, most hands are accompanied by a beer, there are enough 14 year-olds and recovering alcoholics for this to be a serious issue. After working the phones, our sales coordinator pulls some strings shortly thereafter - behold our beverages. While they set up the drink area, I run to GAR park and deliver the rest of the programs to our hospitality tents. At this point I'm sweating enough to rise the comment from my boss, "Looks like you've worked up quite the lather there."
5:20pm- Aside from the fact that our beer supply showed up approximately 3 minutes before we opened, the tailgate is a smooth operation. Running a registration table, I often realized I was the person in between someone and their food. Trying to get information from someone who's salivating is a surprisingly difficult task.
5:58pm - After I meet and deliver tickets and field passes to our halftime punt, pass, and kick contestant, I fulfill many of the remaining pre-game duties. This includes taking pictures of our sponsor display areas, field signage, and hospitality tents to be included in the sponsorship review packets we prepare for our clients.
Not one of the actual pictures - instead a picture of me taking a picture
Funny side story. As I was stopping to steal a shot of the beautiful sea of red, "kid with arms raised" jumps up in the path of the lense (as you can see his timing was off). He darts off in the opposite direction yelling, "Now I'm in your life forver. Forevvvveerrrr!"
Sports Role Reversal at its worst
For many Madisonites Badger football games over the last 4 years can be summarized in a similar manner:
- Wake up to the crescendo of Steve Miller's "Swingtown" at 7:30 in the morning, a conclusion to your 4 hours of low quality sleep.
- Somehow in a foggy haze you managed to shower and put a red shirt on not backwards or inside out. A pair of feats that quite frankly surprise you deep down.
- Although your brain is still 80% not functioning, your body has led you to into a bar by 8:15. Your breakfast: a blood mary. It's okay - it came garnished with celery AND a pickle. You're fighting that whole taste aversion reaction your getting because somehow this glass of tomato, fire and poison is causing your headache retreat.
- Head toward the friend of a family member's friend's co-worker's tailgate because you've been assured the drinks are free and Aunt Peg's taco dip is to die for. On the way there you follow suit and partake in drinking out of beer bongs falling from the sky as if you were getting abducted from creatures from Sudszon.
*4 hours of dead space scattered in with the occasional 15 second memory of having really heart-felt conversations with complete strangers*
- Make the long walk home from the stadium having "seen" your team beat up on an under-matched opponent by 5 TD's and a field goal.
Maybe us Badger fans are spoiled, but when the Badgers step foot onto Camp Randall winning (usually big) is the rule, losing is the very rare exception. In my four previous years as a Badger football fan, this rule was broken one time. ONE. Our record was an unimaginable 25-1. You quickly get accustomed to your team using the other team as a punching bag. You enjoy the win, but the joy disappears quickly due t0 a deep rooted expectation of victory. Football at Camp Randall leads to Badger victories just as flipping a light switch leads to the emergence of light. Well the hardwiring in my body feels askew because there has been darkness for consecutive weeks. When you win, and are used to winning, you don't put much thought into what the other team's fans must feel. My basic assumption is they deserved it for playing us - if you stick the fork into the electrical outlet, you know what you're going to get.
Fast forward to Saturday October 4th 2008. After last week's meltdown vs. a surprisingly bad Michigan in the 2nd half - the comfort of seeing our team on the home turf brings an inner confidence back in our team. Forget that Ohio State is ranked 14th - four spots ahead of us - things like statistics and talent seem to fall by the wayside when inside CR. Fast forward again to Ohio State's last drive of the game. Our previous drive saw us march down the field to score the go ahead TD. We're a defensive stop away from upsetting the higher ranked OSU. A blink of the eye later and a dejected Badger team walks off the field wondering how they let victory slip away. A very tough loss - but still it could be worse than losing by a field goal to a top 15 team.
Now it's the following weekend, Saturday October 11th. Penn State, a more talented, higher ranked opponent than the team that beat us last week, is in town to be the 2nd of our back-to-back night, elite, Big Ten matchups. Logic would say because we've lost the previous two weeks, a loss is a very real probability. However, logic takes a back seat to behavioral conditioning on this day. Home football games still translate to Badger victories on the conscious of the fan....
48-7. We. Lose. By. 41! Like one day waking up with gills 2 leagues deep in the sea, it doesn't take long to let the shock take control. I'd keep writing about where my current college football emotions are, but it would be a heavily misguided rant based off of an instinct of panic.
Instead I'll let you be a part of my day....
1:26pm - Show up ready for a full agenda of game-day duties. We're hosting a tailgate for 500 sponsors in Hall-of-fame park and much still has to be set-up. It's the middle of October in Wisconsin and it's 78 and sunny. Me, a fellow intern, and the sales co-ordinator gameplan what needs to be done and in what order.
3:05pm- The tailgate is beginning to look closer to presentable. We've clothed and put programs on every table. When we go to the normal delivery area for where the Coke gets dropped off, nothing is there. The delivery is late; three days late. Although at Wisconsin tailgates, most hands are accompanied by a beer, there are enough 14 year-olds and recovering alcoholics for this to be a serious issue. After working the phones, our sales coordinator pulls some strings shortly thereafter - behold our beverages. While they set up the drink area, I run to GAR park and deliver the rest of the programs to our hospitality tents. At this point I'm sweating enough to rise the comment from my boss, "Looks like you've worked up quite the lather there."
5:20pm- Aside from the fact that our beer supply showed up approximately 3 minutes before we opened, the tailgate is a smooth operation. Running a registration table, I often realized I was the person in between someone and their food. Trying to get information from someone who's salivating is a surprisingly difficult task.
5:58pm - After I meet and deliver tickets and field passes to our halftime punt, pass, and kick contestant, I fulfill many of the remaining pre-game duties. This includes taking pictures of our sponsor display areas, field signage, and hospitality tents to be included in the sponsorship review packets we prepare for our clients.
Not one of the actual pictures - instead a picture of me taking a picture
Funny side story. As I was stopping to steal a shot of the beautiful sea of red, "kid with arms raised" jumps up in the path of the lense (as you can see his timing was off). He darts off in the opposite direction yelling, "Now I'm in your life forver. Forevvvveerrrr!"
6:48pm - Our tailgate is winding to a close. We have a few no show's which only means one thing...Scalping the leftover tickets. I get a strange high from doing this. Playing the absurd negotiating game with the regulars over on scalper's corner will be something I will miss. Disappointingly, the amount of time I'm given isn't enough for me to sell the tickets for as much as they could, but holding a fat stack of 20's isn't a let down on any level. Unfortunately I see none of the money at the end of the day.
7:50pm - We power walk from the east side first level, across to the west end, to the 2nd deck of the stadium to run the Palermo's Pizza giveaway promotion. Week in and week out, I get the opportunity to see what happens when you mix drunk people and a lot of pizza. It's ugly and hilarious. The lucky row that gets selected as recipients are often overjoyed (really truly too happy). The gentleman at the end of the row today offered our sales coordinator, "a big french kiss free of charge." Those who are closest to the end where the pizza is being dispersed pass the pizza very reluctantly due to a concern that they'll pass a piece, and it will be the last one. It's hard to point a finger at these people though, we all went through this stage. The main difference is most of us were able to break free by the time we left kindergarten. As for those who are proximate to the winning row - seeing grown adults beg for a cold $4 personal pizza is really more entertaining than annoying.
8:22pm - It's getting close to halftime. I meet the punt, pass, and kick contestant to run over the details of how it'll work and to deliver him to the marketing people. On my way across the field to get the Culver's signs set up I take a moment to appreciate being on the turf during the game.
Our half ends with a turnover deep in our own territory which leads to a quick Penn State TD. The score is 24-7. The team quickly runs off the field, the halftime promotion people are just as rapidly on it.
Our punt, pass, and kick contestant was really good this week. He had to lay up with his throw because his punt was so long. Before nailing the field goal, he got the crowd into it by encouraging the student section to stand up and cheer.
10:16pm- The game is officially a blowout. There are 4 minutes left in the game and the student section is more than half empty (or less than half full depending on your outlook).
The stadium is so quiet you can hear individual conversations in each section. I'm pretty sure at one point I heard a cheerleader sneeze. People are unsure as to how they're supposed to be reacting. It's like a species forgetting it's migration path due to global warming. Definitely an atypical ending to a rather typical day.
7:50pm - We power walk from the east side first level, across to the west end, to the 2nd deck of the stadium to run the Palermo's Pizza giveaway promotion. Week in and week out, I get the opportunity to see what happens when you mix drunk people and a lot of pizza. It's ugly and hilarious. The lucky row that gets selected as recipients are often overjoyed (really truly too happy). The gentleman at the end of the row today offered our sales coordinator, "a big french kiss free of charge." Those who are closest to the end where the pizza is being dispersed pass the pizza very reluctantly due to a concern that they'll pass a piece, and it will be the last one. It's hard to point a finger at these people though, we all went through this stage. The main difference is most of us were able to break free by the time we left kindergarten. As for those who are proximate to the winning row - seeing grown adults beg for a cold $4 personal pizza is really more entertaining than annoying.
8:22pm - It's getting close to halftime. I meet the punt, pass, and kick contestant to run over the details of how it'll work and to deliver him to the marketing people. On my way across the field to get the Culver's signs set up I take a moment to appreciate being on the turf during the game.
Our half ends with a turnover deep in our own territory which leads to a quick Penn State TD. The score is 24-7. The team quickly runs off the field, the halftime promotion people are just as rapidly on it.
Our punt, pass, and kick contestant was really good this week. He had to lay up with his throw because his punt was so long. Before nailing the field goal, he got the crowd into it by encouraging the student section to stand up and cheer.
8:49pm - Now I get to relax and watch the rest of the game from our sky box. So far the 2nd half hasn't proven to be any more promising. Still its nice to be watching the game from the comfort of a big cushioned seat with a bunch of TVs to supplement the experience. Maybe that or I'm enjoying the fact that I'm not running around for the first time in almost 8 hours.
10:16pm- The game is officially a blowout. There are 4 minutes left in the game and the student section is more than half empty (or less than half full depending on your outlook).
The stadium is so quiet you can hear individual conversations in each section. I'm pretty sure at one point I heard a cheerleader sneeze. People are unsure as to how they're supposed to be reacting. It's like a species forgetting it's migration path due to global warming. Definitely an atypical ending to a rather typical day.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
Posts
