Miami Tailgate Wrap Up
“Eat more chicken”
By Bob W.
Overall:
At first I was against the 3:30 start. Seems too early. I wanted a rocking night game for when the Cane’s came to town, but I think I have changed my opinion. Sometimes I forget that at this time of year 3:30 is basically a night game. And better than that, it gives us the max amount of daylight time to tailgate and on November 11, 2006 we had perhaps one of the best tailgating weather days of all time. The temperature was warm enough for T-shirts (even after the sun went down), yet no one got sun burn? That just simply doesn’t happen in November (the T-shirt part, not the no sun burn part). It was a perfect 100 on a scale of 100, and I am glad we got to spent it in Lot 1!
Overall what a great tailgate, we were missing a couple people, but we still managed to have a great time. The horse racing game has created a nice little niche for itself, being the perfect game for the time when there aren’t enough people to play L,R,C and it is WAY to early to begin flip cup. And the later two games, well they didn’t disappoint either, but when have they?
Highlight:
The Miami tailgate highlight was easily the appearance of the Chick-Fil-A cow. The good folks (and bovines) brought us a gallon of sweet tea, many chicken sandwiches, brownies, and even after dinner mints. All for nothing, of course I believe every single person in the tailgate got the same deal, which makes me wonder how much money Chick-Fil-A spent on that promotion, but it won me over. Hey if you want me to eat so bad at your restaurant that you’ll hook our entire tailgate, well count me in. I’m not that hard to convince.
The runner up highlight of the tailgate, as mentioned before was the weather. A few days earlier it looked like we could have showers moving in for game time, but they held off. The temperature resembled Miami more than College Park, but luckily the Cane’s didn’t feel too comfortable. It really didn’t dawn on me until about the 3rd quarter when I realized I was still wearing short sleeves.
Tailgate Lowlight:
The tailgate
lowlight had to be the North side of the flip cup table. Not since Bull Run has
the South embarrassed the North like that. I started out on the North side and
I felt powerless, we could one flip, we could 2 flip we could blow at the other
teams cups, but you just couldn’t win. I was starting to get a little upset
with the trash talking Southerners, but once I switched sides, it mysteriously
got a lot easier to win. I don’t know if it was the lay of the table or maybe
some strange cross wind that only affected the Northern side of the table, but
whatever it was it was devastating the northern end of the table. I say the
North may have won 2 games the entire day.
The “Save the Terrapin” Drive:
Once again, I
show up and we have a near record haul for the Terrapin Fund. I can’t say
enough about how floored I was to have as much money as we do for the little
guys, but I also didn’t realize how much gambling would infiltrate the 2006
tailgating season. We got many generous donations from the flip cup game, which
was strange because usually L,R,C is the bread winner in the tailgating family
of games. But none the less this weeks Miami Tailgate pulled in a near record
$86. That’s 5, almost 6 Terrapins saved in a single day. Only out done by the
William and Mary Tailgate. We now have $268 (+change) in the fund and are close
to doubling our yearly goal of $150. Since with each $150 we raise we get to go
to a releasing, I will have to figure out how best to spread around the wealth,
whether we make a big one time donation, or two $150 donations. I also will
look into how many people we can send to the release party. Hopefully as many
as we want because a lot of people have been giving generously all year long.
By the way the $268 represents 17 Terrapins that will forever be saved from
being someone’s dinner.
Tailgate MVP:
Even as I am writing this sentence I am not sure if I am going to keep it or erase it yet, but this week I am going with No Tailgate MVP. It isn’t necessarily because no one rose up, it is just that everyone did their part to make the most of the day. J again did an excellent job on the grill, but I can’t give him the MVP for doing the same thing every week, Brian remembered the horse racing game, and I brought the Tin and L,R,C (neither action is really worth acknowledging). The Leavitts came strong as well as the rest of the Calvert County Crew, and John actually showed up a full hour before the game (if the TGMVP was handicapped, John may have won right there!). So as much as I hate to do it, I am not giving an MVP for the Miami tailgate. Sure it is a controversial decision, but much like the decision not to have a NCAA Football playoff, this will just benefit D-7 by generating more water cooler discussion.
Honorable Mention:
Well if there wasn’t a TG MVP, why do you think there would be an honorable mention?? I will however give Bix the obligatory shout out for winning the Pass, Punt, and Kick Competition.
Good work everyone. For those of us going to BC, lets show New England how we prepare for Football games in Maryland, for those not, rest up and be ready to Rock the Kasbah for what could be the biggest tailgate since 2001. GO TERPS!!