One Particular Harbour
Thoughts about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness from Dave Darby.
All posts in football
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NFL Champions
Feb 4, 2007Posted by Dave Darby
Read more »My very first blog (back in August) was Preseason NFL Football - let the dog months begin.
So the Indianapolis Colts won it all – finally – wow. Again, wow. When I left Columbus, Ohio to live with my father in Indianapolis in 1980, you had either the Bears or the Bengals to root for locally. I chose the Bears and I can still remember exactly where I was sitting during the Super Bowl watching them blow out the Patriots in the 1986. So it was cool to see both programs in the Super Bowl this year. I was among the first of fans to sit in the ‘Hoosier’ Dome and watch the Colts in 1984 and on into 1990-ish before moving to Los Angeles.
NFL Champions. It’s been a long time coming. A long way from the days of QBs Art Schlichter, Mark Hermann, Jeff George, Jack Trudeau to Peyton Manning. A long way from coaches Frank Kush, Rod Dowhower, Ron Meyer, Ted Marchibroda, Jim Mora to Tony Dungy. A long way indeed. I watched them all – usually in great dissapointment. Not this year.
I tell my wife that I am not superstitious and that I just do weird things to keep calm as I get way to wrapped up in these kinds of games. I am much the competitor and not at all the spectator. So there I was eating pregame chips and salsa when Hester ran back that opening kickoff, then the Colts turn it over and da Bears score again. So I dropped the chips and finally ate dinner at 9p CST – after the game. Not that eating was bad juju – but hey, I wasn’t going to take the fall. And what do you know? It worked.
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Gainesville Jinx?
Jan 9, 2007Posted by Dave Darby
Read more »Yesterday was our last day in Orlando after extending an extra week for a Grammy visit. It was also National Championship Monday in which two of my favorite programs were playing for the collegiate football title in Glendale’s Tostitos BSC game. Now, given that it was also my birthday, I was looking forward to what all the experts said would be a great present – my hometown Buckeyes staking claim to their 2nd title in 5 years becoming the first team to win a 2nd BCS Title. Well, maybe the experts left out the birthday part, but the expectations were the same.
So, as we finally head west on our cross-country journey, we had one travel requirement – park the family keisters in front of the television in time for kickoff.
Final Score:
Florida 41
Ohio State 14It was over when: Ohio State’s Ted Ginn, Jr. handed the ball to the referee after taking the opening kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown. Ginn should have hidden the ball as allowing Florida to have the ball was bad – all bad, very bad.
Highlight for Buckeyes fans: an unprecedented 50 days between an undefeated season, the magnificent victory over the Wolverines and the first 6 seconds of the game. After that, it was fuGly with a capital G.
Highlight for Gator fans: Ted Ginn, Jr. leaving the game rendering Ohio State zero-dimensional. Apparently, Troy Smith gave his Heisman Trophy – indicative to the best single, standout player in all of college football – to his mother. Oops, Troy, maybe you should re-gift it to your high school teammate and buddy, Ted, because as Ted went, so did the Buckeyes.
Bad Juju: With a busy week prior to leaving Orlando and a non-chalant attitude about where we stay on our way to our next pitstop – San Antonio – we had no firm plans as to where to stay last night. That’s why we spent $700 on a Garmin right? Part map reader, part traffic cop, part mp3 player and part Concierge. So we fire up Kay (our Garmin’s choice voice) and set a course for 2 hours up the road and where does that put us? Smack dab in Gator country – Gainesville – home of those University of Florida Gators. ‘Hmmm’ I think to myself not wishing to voice any superstitions. I say to Jul, ‘you know, maybe we can make it to Destin or Tallahassee?’ Tap, tap, tap – uh, no, that takes us past kickoff by 30-90 minutes. What to do? Well, let’s be adults here and admit that staying in Gainsville would have no effect on the outcome of the game for crying out loud. Not to mention, we were wearing the same clothes we had on for the Michigan game just in case…
Damn you Juju!!! I did it. I’m SORRY. All of the sports reporters for the next week will talk about the SEC’s power over the Big Ten, about how 50 days of a layoff is just too much, about Tressel being outcoached by Spurrier – oops, I mean Meyer and about how winning the Heisman Tropy is a jinx the second you pick it up – past winners have laid some serious lemons in bowl games and in the NFL.
But they don’t know that a homegrown Buckeye fan putz parked his arse at a hotel in the heart of enemy territory and raised the almight flag of bad Juju. They don’t know that we took our time getting on the road and created this preventable crisis. They don’t know that when the desk clerk handed me my room keys asked me if I’d be watching the big game tonight, I said ‘Absolutely’, but quickly ducked out before having to proclaim my allegiance and risk getting my ass kicked in front of the kids and what would have been an ugly mob of hotel guests practicing the gator ‘chomp’.
And sadly, they don’t know that my 20-month old daughter has a limited vocabulary of maybe 100 words – among them ‘touchdown!’ (with arms fully raised), ‘football’, and, of course, ‘Go Buckeyes!’ But like a coward, I snuck into the hotel for checkout without her hoping to avoid one of those embarrasing moments that only someone with kids can truly appreciate.
I admit it – I am the reason the Buckeyes lost and I feel horrible about it. Surely the game was on XM and we could have just motored down the road listening to the game and resisting the Juju. But, no, I was weak and exhausted from the 90 minute drive and caved in to temptation.
So I settle my lazy butt into a posh hotel room, ordered pizza and proclaimed my spot on the couch. Then I watched in disbelief as some team dressed in Buckeyes uniforms played a very non-Buckeyes game as if their Juju had been ripped right out of their chests. My bad. Oh, lil Olivia learned a new word last night and repeated as she slapped herself on the knee, no joke, everytime the Buckeyes had the ball – ‘dammit!’. That’s my girl.
Today, we drove down the campus and oddly enough, aside from a few satellite trucks, it was rather quiet. I can only guess it was because everyone had only gone to bed an hour or so before. As it should be. Congratulations Gator fans. Next year though, you will have to win it by yourself because I will be a continent away from your wicked, bad Juju ways teaching our then-to-be 10-month old her first few words – ‘Go Buckeyes!’
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Nighttime Space Shuttle Launch
Dec 9, 2006Posted by Dave Darby
Read more »Thursday night we made the trek as we did a couple months ago to watch NASA’s space shuttle launch. We’ve were fortunate to be in Florida for two launches in such a short time. And we couldn’t miss the fire display that would be the first nighttime launch in 4 years, so there we were. Except, it was cloudy and with T-minus 9:00 minutes, the launch was aborted and we drove 50 minutes back home to try another day.
Today was the day, however, I am beat from pushing hard on work this week and we couldn’t be sure that Olivia would enjoy the travel more than the other day in which she cried and fussed a lot.
Plus, Troy Smith, the quarterback for the #1 Ohio State Buckeyes was going to win the coveted Heisman Trophy tonight just a few minutes past launch. I like science and new frontiers a lot, but football more…;)
So, we rolled the big screen to face the door and watched a simultaneous close-up lift-off and an amazing outdoor display of a nighttime sunrise. It was unbelievable how much the scattered clouds lit up in what was otherwise a beautifully clear sky. Ten minutes later, Troy Smith’s NFL draft-status launched into the stratosphere as the first-ever Buckeye and Big Ten QB to win the Heisman Trophy. A good night!