Home
Up

Boston College Tailgate Wrap-Up:

            - Lot 1, College Park, MD

Tailgate Quote: 

“Can I call you back, I’m in the middle of a beer bong.”

            - Tim

Overall:

I know I say this after every tailgate, but I had a blast at the Boston College one.  I like to think that regardless of what goes on inside the stadium, it shouldn’t affect how we view that particular tailgating experience.  That is why the tailgate recap and game recaps are two separate entities, they have nothing to do with one another, but somehow I think that may not necessarily be true.  The euphoria of beating Boston College, in what is by far the most unexpected, head scratching game in perhaps Maryland history, I think seeps into the tailgate memories and makes every flip cup game seem more intense, every horse race pot a little more meaty, and every cookie taste that much sweeter.  But whatever it was, this was a great way to end the season.

Usually when you think back on past great tailgates, it’s the unexpected ones.  It was the Temple game in 2005 where we got 3 inches of rain and if just one person had said “You know what guys, I think I’m going to sit this one out.”, a whole domino effect would have rippled through D7.  And it’s the 2007 Rutgers game where you have absolutely no idea where you are going, where you should be, and who is going to want to kick your ass for not being from New Jersey.  Or how can anyone forget the great “Hay bale” game down in Raleigh in 2003.  The list goes on and on, but the one thing they all have in common is adversity. 

We have fallen into a trap of arriving in Lot 1 6 hours ahead of time (well J and I at least), going through the same thing. Drink, play horse racing, drink play LRC, drink, and play flip cup.  Play flip cup one game too many, then disassemble the tailgate with the speed that would make Jimmy Johnson’s pit crew jealous.  (Damn there is another great name game candidate).  So it is hard to kind of separate the home tailgates out from one another.  Sure we have special guests with friends and family, and we do throw in the pumpkin carving contest each October, but other than that, it’s the same old thing. 

Now I’m not complaining, I love our tailgates, but the point I’m trying to make is that the home tailgates all seem to blend together when you look back at them, but this Boston College one, it was great.  It had a little bit of everything.  Maybe it’s the Football game affecting it, but this was a hell of a way to go out.  That of course is a double edged sword. Because as much as it was a great way to end the season, it just makes the next 9 months seem all the longer (By the way, for those who don’t already know, the 9 months your wife is pregnant goes a heck of a lot faster than the 9 months between the ending and the beginning of College Football).

Tailgate Highlights:

Damn this is tough.  I don’t know if there was one particular highlight.  If there was I’d probably go with flip cup again.  It is an easy cop out for the highlight, but really, is there anytime of the day when more people aren’t intense, scared, excited, untied, nervous, and anxious then when you hear Clap…….Clap…….Clap……(Oooooooooo!).  I get chills just thinking about it.

I also at this point want to bring up a point Jason raised.  The level of flip cup has certainly improved over the course of the season.  A team from the Villanova tailgate would have been slaughtered by a losing team at the Boston College Tailgate.  You start out the year trying to get it done in under say 4 or 5.  By the end of the year, if you flip twice or more, you want to bury your head in shame.  We have definitely stepped it up.  So I guess you can add improved flip cup skills to the tailgate highlight as well. 

Tailgate Lowlights:

Usually I try to be uplifting and light hearted with these recaps, but unfortunately life can sometimes throw you a curve and no matter how much fun you are having at the tailgate,  you just can’t seem to keep personal tragedy at bay.  Saturday unfortunately was one of those days for me.  Saturday I lost a very near and dear friend, and as much fun as I had at the Boston College Tailgate, there will always be a black cloud when ever I think back on that fateful day.  I hope others don’t mind but I would like to take a few moments to pay tribute to my fallen buddy….my favorite pair of blue jeans.

I’m not sure when it happened, but sometime during the football game I looked down and had a hole in my right leg about 4 inches wide.  I was crushed.  You see, most of you may be thinking what’s the big deal, they are only blue jeans, but for some reason, I don’t own many jeans that fit me like these did.  Maybe it’s because I still have an ass, but most of my jeans are either too loose, or too tight, and the ones that due seem to fit are either too dark, or too light.  But these jeans, man they were just perfect, and the comfort, well it was like having two Eskimo midgets wrapped around your leg.  But they are gone now, and all I’m left with is an empty spot in my closet, and my heart. 

I did briefly flirt with the idea of making them into shorts, but during the game a guy in front of us had a sign that said “Matt Ryan wears jorts.”.  I asked Brian what jorts were, and he said that sign was in reference to Tim Teabow being on You tube wearing jean shorts.  So that killed that idea.  I swear I’m always the last to know what isn’t cool anymore (I feel your pain Timmy Teabow).  I think ultimately the perfect pair of jeans are going to get patched up and live out their remaining years as yard work pants.  So long my dear friend.  You will be missed.

Oh and the runner up lowlight was seeing the beer bong show up.  I’m not sure which I would rather see coming across the parking lot, a pissed off Campus Cop, or the beer bong.  Actually I do know, and it’s the one that doesn’t make me feel like puking.  By the way, names to be added to the Beer Bong Ring of Honor:  Tim (shocker), Chris (kinda), Bob (kinda with an asterisk) Jason, Justin, and Erin.  If giving into peer pressure was a noble endeavor, we’d all be referred to as hero’s!

Live from College Park Downs:

            Once again we had a 3 card day featuring the main event for race 3 which everyone knows is the “Double Up Derby”.  We had a lot going on this first race including the first ever announced horse racing boycott followed shortly by said boycotter buying chips.  I’m not saying it was the shortest boycott ever, but we do appreciate your contribution to the winners pot ….J. 

            The first race saw the wealth spread around as it would be under a ruthless communist dictatorship with Me, Doug, Derek, and Danielle splitting the pot.  Race number two was more like the American economy we all know and love where one person can….ney SHOULD have more than the rest.  In this case Big Oil was played by Chris who took three shares of the pot (I’m not saying the system is perfect, but it’s still the best system we’ve got).  Danielle took the 4^th share to round out the Bixler family horse racing dynasty. 

            And then there was the “Double Up Derby”.  This weeks Derby wasn’t nearly as bad as those in the past.  The key was that the 7 horse was never killed.  You can almost count on the 7 being the 2$ kill at the Derby and that is why the Derby has grown into what it is today (with the ABC coverage), but in this particular Derby, not only was the 7 alive and kicking, the race was won in rather short order so no one really got taken to the cleaners.  Though the pot was lighter than most DUD’s I’m still proud to say that I was one of the owners of said race.  Those joining me in the winners circle as we placed the tiny blanked of roses on the little wooden horses head was Surin, David, and Snively. 

LRC:

This was no weekend for chump change LRC, in fact the first game featured one of the biggest pots of the season.  Brea and Matt, combined to take home $50 in the LRC game.  Matt started off playing, but when he left for the bathroom and Brea took over things really started coming together for the Leitgeb's.  Brea successfully (and by successfully I really mean suspiciously) rolled..dot…after dot…after dot….after, well you get the picture, but she held onto that chip like it was the last helicopter ticket out of the US Embassy in Saigon. 

Now that answers the question of who won, but if you’re like me your quickly doing the math and figuring out how the hell was the pot $50 when everyone was supposed to put in $3?  Well I guess we’ll never know the answer to that one, but we do know that someone at our table struggles with math. 

And that was it for the main LRC event, but there was an unsanctioned LRC game at the post game tailgate.  However, this wasn’t your fathers LRC game, because this was REVERSE LRC.  I don’t know much, but I do know that whenever you play any game of luck in reverse, with the prize being an object or task no one wants, the excitement is increased exponentially.  During regular LRC, if you don’t win, eh, no big deal.  But if the payout is negative for winning, and you really don’t want to win, the “eh” factor is completely removed.  In this case the last one with a chip lost, and the “prize” was that they had to lick the D7 tailgate table.  When I floated the idea, I briefly thought we’d have an E40Hands replay where no one would participate except for Chris and I, but I was pleasantly surprised with who all manned up.  However, one person who wishes he would have sat this one out was Justin.  Justin had the last chip and the unfortunate experience of sticking his tongue to the icy table (for the Physics majors at home, no it did not get stuck…damn). 

But if you ever needed any proof that there is indeed a tailgating God watching down on us, we played one more regular game of LRC and as Karma would have it, Justin won. 

Punt, Pass, and Kick:

Since we had people show up actually 6 hours before the game for a change, we were able to hold a Punt, Pass, and Kick challenge.  Or is it Pass, Punt, and Kick?  Who knows, but what we do know is that Chris took home another Victory.  Chris is always a threat at PPK, and he upheld both his reputation for being a solid PPK’er and being the most injury proned member of D7 tailgate. 

Though I did not win (damn torn rotator cuff), I did get to live out one of my all time sports fantasies of being the holder when a winning kick is made.  Every back up Quarterback/punter/coaches son, dreams of the day when they can hold the ball while someone else achieves glory, and I’m no different.  When a kicker wins a big game, there is always that famous image of the kicker being hugged and held off the ground by…not the running back who ran for 100+ yard and got tacked 28 times, not the QB who lead the game winning drive after being sacked time and time again, but the squeaky clean holder who looks like he just walked off the set of a TIDE commercial.  For a moment, I was that guy, and it was fun.  Though I do regret my initial bear hug wasn’t lower, I didn’t quite get the lift I was looking for in the victory hug/lift. 

Flip Cup Results:

And here it is, I usually try to put this off for as long as possible, because I often worry that whatever I say or write will not be able to live up to nor capture the intensity which is D7 Flip cup.  So here we go, I will do my best.  This weekends flip cup was especially good because we had, not the same teams over and over, but we’ll say the same core of people on each team.  This is important because it sort of builds the rivalry.  Familiarity breeds contempt and contempt makes for GREAT flip cup.  Not only does the similar line ups make for better competition, but it also means both sides felt strongly enough about their squad chances, that there was no large scale movement for changes.  So lets jump in.

The First Series:  The first series of the day featured “The ‘Vous All Stars” vs. the “Cornerstone Kids”.  The VAS’s included Erin, Justin, J, Mary, Brian, Madra, B Lee, and myself.  While the CK’s were comprised of Jen, Tim, Chris, David, Danielle, Juanita, Surin, and Jason.  This one was pretty close as the CK’s took an early 2 game lead, but the VAS’s were not to be denied. As it turned out the CK’s were basically poking the Lion with a stick by taking game #1 and #2 and the VAS’s roared to live taking the final 4 in a row

The Second Series: This one featured the most notorious phrase known to flip cup “Run it back”.  For those that don’t speak flip cup, this basically means “We do not acknowledge your victory over us, we request a re-match to prove that with the removal of the “Luck” element, we will prove that our squad is either greater or equal to your squad.”….that is why most people just say “Run it back”.   But no matter how you phrase it, the CK’s proved their point by taking the series.

The Third Series: Again these were basically the same teams, but with a few newbies thrown in for good measure.  Team “The Hills” featured Justin, J, Brian, Erin, Nicole, Derek, Nicole 2, Erin, Mary, and myself.  Team “Laguna Beach” was made up of Tim, Danielle, Bix, Amy, Kate, Kristen, Parker, David, Jen, and Jason.  That’s right, a 10 v. 10.  This one was one for the ages.  I wish we had it on video because it went to game 7.  I’m not sure how we got to game seven but according to the notebook (which is incapable of lies) I have a star next to Snively with the words Papelbon, so I’m guessing Snively closed it out for “The Hills”.  Of course up until two minutes ago, I thought it said Paper Bag, but I finally deciphered it and now kind of remember what happened.

The Forth Series:  Just like the Wild Card Series in MLB, the fourth series featured a best of 5.  This one was saw a face off between, “The Juan Dixon Fan Club” vs. “The Steve Blake Gansters”.  JDFC was composed of Snively (or Paper Bag), Derek, Bob, Mary, Erin, Justin, Madra, J. And the SBG’s made up of Jen, Danielle, Juanita, Brea, Chris, Surin, Jason, and Parker.  Though this one was a best of 5, it might as well have been best of 1 because it was over after that.  JDFC won this one in 3 to close out the Flip Cup Series. 

So there you have it.  Below are the FINAL 2007 standings.  If you don’t see your name on the list, well then you need to get off your ass and play some flip cup.  Otherwise you should be there.  

Congratulations to Erin who wins Flip Cup Player of the year.  You can debate about whether the current standings just show who played with better teammates, but I don’t think you can argue about the kind of season Erin had.  Player of the year runner up is J and Jen.  Jen is quietly building a reputation, while J, I just like putting second because I know it drives him crazy to not be first.  Actually now looking at the final standings, toss Snively in there too.  All in all, in the last 3 tailgates we have had 46 different people belly up to the table.  I think that is pretty amazing. 

Weather Report Card:

Not many forecasts left for the weather desk, so I am very happy to get that Boston College one right.  I wish I’d put the High a little lower, but not to bad.  You basically had an idea going into the game what to expect and that’s the best I can do really.  The only problem is with the night game the high wasn’t really that important, so the 54 call made it seem like the day was going to be warmer than the tailgate forecast was calling for. 

The “Save the Terrapin” Drive:

On Friday before the BC game I was quite comfortable in saying that this would definitely be the final tailgate of the year, but with our unexpected win we have kept our bowl hopes alive.  And depending on where the bowl is, there is always an outside chance enough D7’ers could make a trip out of it (as of now I think I’d go to Charlotte, anything further than that though I’ll probably pass).  But in all likelihood this was probably it for the 2007 “Save the Terrapin” Drive.  We didn’t have the haul we took at the Clemson game, but we did all right.  In total we raised $22* on Saturday which brings the yearly total to $178.25 which I will add $1.75 to make it a nice $180.  I would also like to point out that inside the “Save the Terrapin” tin was a boarding pass for flight 348 Boston MA to Baltimore/Washington, MD.  I don’t know who the passenger in seat 31C was, but we appreciate his enthusiasm, even if we can’t redeem this for any actual turtle saving funds.

Now we didn’t quite meet our 2006 goal, when we hit the $300 mark, but the good news is that with the passing of the harvest ban, the Terrapins are now safe from the waterman’s nets and pots.  Sure they still have issues to deal with such as habitat loss and predation, but this was a big step for the little guys.  The money raised by the STT fund will go toward research and awareness, and I’m pretty sure that we can get another release party this spring or summer.  And that is mainly what I want to go for because as tough as it was to set up last years release, I felt bad that some of the people that faithfully gave all season long couldn’t make it.  It really was worth all the effort and I’m hoping those who didn’t get a chance in 2006 will get a chance in 2007, and those that were there in 2006 will get a chance to do it again.  It is definitely a cool experience.

As for next year, again we should maybe kick around some other charities.  We could still do the save the terrapin fund, be we could also explore some other charities that may be worthwhile to all involved.  I’m up for anything.  As I’ve said before we can always punt the fund raising, but I feel it does gives us a little more credibility that our drinking and carrying on brings a little something positive to someone somewhere.

*The asterisk is for Justin.  Justin donated 10$ at the end of the night.  There was a $10 in the tin, but I’m not sure if that was Justins or not, I’m thinking I may have put that in my truck to add later since the tin was packed away.  I need to go out to my truck to verify that the money was added, but as of right now it is cold and rainy and I have my Pillsbury Doughboy Slippers on, so that will have to wait.  If the $10 already counted wasn’t Justins, then we will add $10 and the actual totals will be $32 and $190.  

Tailgate MVP:

Yeah for the second week in a row, I have an easy decision to make.  The Tailgate MVP (though she was late!) goes to Erin (aka Peyton Manning).  Erin showed up ready to ‘gait and didn’t disappoint.  Sure she does that every game, but what made this game different was that she wouldn’t quit.  The MAN says you can’t bring the tailgate into the Stadium, but Erin has never been one to let the MAN tell her what to do.  Unfortunately in this case the MAN was in fact a woMAN, and this particular woman, wasn’t afraid to grab in her most sacred beer hiding spots. 

Great Job Erin.  I am proud of you.  I’m not implying this is your first time you’ve been kicked out of a football game, but I will say that you never forget your first time.  I know mine, I won’t bore people with the details, but we’ll just refer to it as the “Timothy Andrew” incident, the guilty parties know the rest of the story.

I would like to point out that the women have really stepped it up for Tailgate MVP this year, that is two weeks in a row they have taken the honor.  What is going on Gentleman?

Honorable Mention (in no particular order): 

Jen (aka Tom Brady) gets honorable mention for all the above reasons, the only reason she didn’t get MVP was because she didn’t go into the graphic detail Erin went into when talking about the incident afterwards.  Of course it would have been hard to do since she was sawing logs inside the jeep.  Either way Jon and Judy’s sons know how to pick ‘em. 

Other mentions go out to Mary and Brea.  Mary for making food and for taking J home.  What!?!  Taking your husband home from a football game is a feat worth mentioning in a recap, well 2 weeks ago that is what I would have thought, but thanks to the Clemson post game one on one flip cup bonanza, I know what a pain in the ass it is!

Brea gets the nod for bring the choclate chip squares, I don’t know what they are called (oh by the way if anyone has any peanut allergies please do not read this recap) but I do know that they got ravaged at the post game tailgate. 

Conclusion

Well that wraps up the 2007 Regular Tailgating Season.  I hope everyone had fun, and I think we all did, otherwise we wouldn’t come back.  The good news is that I won’t be looking over your shoulder with a pad and pen in the next 9 nine months waiting for you to do something stupid so I can write it down.  The bad news is that when you are at work and you say something funny, I won’t be there to write that down either, so it goes both ways. 

I think we have stepped up our tailgating yet again.  I remember doing these recaps and so and so forgot the table legs, we wouldn’t have solo cups, no one would bring chips, we’d run out of beer, but every single tailgate this year went off without a hitch.  We are getting scary good.  Well we do have 2 more games and hopefully we all can get together somewhere to watch some b-ball.  I’m looking in the general direction of those who live in the middle of the state, say Annapolis or somewhere.  And who knows maybe the Terps can pull it together and reach a reasonable bowl game and we can squeeze one more ‘gate out of this season.  Just like the BC game proved, you never know!

So until then, don’t forget:

• You’re tongue can NOT get stuck to frozen wood
• I can eat unlimited amount of cookies after a football game
• The victory cigar may be a tradition that is here to stay
• Whatever cost and effort went into building the flip cup table has been redeemed several thousand times over
• A bad football team can’t ruin a tailgate, but it can sure make it that much better

Now lets go beat Dem Noles.  Meanwhile I’m off to write the BC game recap and to try and figure out how to spin my “I surrender” UNC recap.