The Football Version of New Years

Well here I am once again super duper behind on the blog. I'm finishing off the last of the New Years photos. Just football on this post, for anyone OTHER than my Dad who might be interested in it. I had so many many photos I took at the games- some didn't come out so great- so I've just picked a few of the highlights.

We started the holiday in a familiar place- the Georgia Dome in Atlanta where we go see the Falcons play. On New Year's Eve night (my bday), we went to the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, where James' University of Tennessee Volunteers were playing Virginia Tech. In fact our seats were very near our regular season ticket seats, so we had a great view.

The first half of the game was pretty close, and so it was exciting. I don't have any good photos of the actual game, because once the game starts I pretty much just watch football, jump up and down, and scream a lot. Difficult to take aim with the camera. But here's the team before the game. Little did we know this would be Lame, I mean Lane Kiffin's last game in an orange shirt.

And what is a UT game without hearing the band play Rocky Top! I admit it, I sing along and go "Whoo!" in all the right places, I can't help myself. Unfortunately the second half of the game wasn't so kind to the Vols, and they didn't win. We stayed to watch the entire game though, we're not "fair weather" fans. We rode the train into the city, and by the time we finally got back home, it was super late. And we had to get up SUPER early the next morning, January 1st, 2010. Luckily we had packed the night before.

As you know we spent the New Year weekend in New Orleans. That's because on New Year's Day we had yet another football game to go to, at the Superdome. Yes, we did two bowl games in two nights in two different states. Not many folks can say that.

My Florida Gators were playing in the Sugar Bowl this year. A let down after winning the National Championship last year, but hey, it was still a BCS bowl and those are of course reserved for an elite group of teams.

It was freezing cold that evening, but when we walked over from our hotel to the game, the doors weren't opened yet. We hung out with the rest of the growing crowd at the "Fan Jam" they had- live music, food, games. James tried his hand at being an armchair quarterback, where he won a prize.

We also got to meet former Gator star Chris Doering, who signed an autographed photo to my Dad (I'll get it to you soon Dad!). Chris played many years in the NFL, and now hosts a radio show on ESPN.

Yes folks, I even had on Gator socks! (I don't own Gator underwear but if I did, I would have worn those as well!)

It was our first time to go to the Superdome, and James walked around the entire place before finally settling in. The Superdome is definitely bigger than the Georgia Dome. I know it suffered a lot of damage during Katrina, but it looked shiny and sparkling clean when we were there.

Although James stayed loyal to his UT Vols by wearing their shirt, he did wear a Gator hat so he could try and blend in with the crowd a little better... I told him this was a great black mail photo, but he said we're married so I'm not allowed to black mail him!

We had amazing seats, on the 50 yard line right down front, thanks to a dear family friend of my parents. Here Tim Tebow is so close during warmups, I could reach out and pinch him! We could see the game perfectly, I don't think I looked up at the monitor once during the actual game, we got all the action right before our eyes!

Best of all, here is the final score. The Cincinnati Bearcats were overwhelmed by the Gators. Their fans were excited in the beginning, shouting out loud in unison. But pretty soon the chants of "SEC! SEC!" quited them down. Soon the entire Gator Nation was hollering "Tebow! Tebow!" and "Urban! Urban!" The Cincinnati fans stayed for the whole game, but they were fairly silent for the second half.

And the final result is.....this! I wish it read National Champs, but my sister's Crimson Tide got that honor this year, and she and her husband were lucky enough to go to California for a few days to see their bowl game. Oh well, the one thing about football is, there will always be a next season to look forward to!