njuneardave
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So I went to the College Football Awards. It was a crazy night… and I wanted to share the story with you guys. So here goes:
I left work early at 3:30 pm on Thursday. I made a quick stop at my house to change into my #3 Notre Dame Ron Powlus jersey (old skool) and pick up a football and a Sharpie marker and my camera. I left my house around 4:10 to pick up my wife from her work. We made a quick stop for some Taco Bell and headed to Orlando. The traffic was a little heavy, and we hit some delays. I was hoping to be outside the Dance Hall at 5:00 (since the awards started at 7 pm), but google maps gave me some vague directions to the Disney Boardwalk, and I was driving around the Disney complex for about 25 minutes trying to find the spot (you would think they would post some signs pointing to the Boardwalk). Finally, I find my destination, and I park my car (no cost for parking!). It was about 6:15 at this time. We walk on the boardwalk to the dance hall, and I see some other Notre Dame fans headed to the red carpet as well. We all walk to the hall together, but on the way (much to my dismay), a guy walks past us and says “You just missed Brady Quinn and the Shark.” I was pretty upset b/c my wife refused to run from the parking lot to the dining hall with me… so I basically missed my chance to meet the Notre Dame crew. So, finally, my wife runs with me to the red carpet. When we arrive, there were quite a few Irish fans there (one girl had a sign that read: “Brady! Kiss Me, I’m Irish!”). There were 3 Bucknuts to my right, a few Rutgers fans, a few Hawaii fans, a few Michigan fans, and a bunch of random onlookers. Overall, there were about 120 people lining the red carpet leading to the Dance Hall. While waiting for players to show, I was also informed that Weis had already gone inside (apparently Carlson didn’t come? I couldn’t find him anywhere all night).
I talked to the Bucknuts while standing outside… they were actually really nice. After they ragged on the Irish for winning the Commander-in-Chief trophy, they started telling me that the Irish were scared to join the Big 10 (in a joking manner), but they needed to join in order to get respect. I replied that “Notre Dame doesn’t need the Big 10… the Big 10 needs Notre Dame.” It didn’t go over too well… one Bucknut harped on Notre Dame for beating Navy 43 straight times saying, “that’s such an easy win… what a patsy schedule.” So I asked him why he thought Navy/Army/AF was worse than Cincy/NIU/Illinois/Bowling Green/Indiana/Nwestern. No answer =) But, I was able to have some intelligent conversation with the OSU fans… like I said, they were nice guys… but of course, we had to take some shots at each other – all in fun. I really enjoyed their company. So… now to the players:
The first player to walk the red carpet while I was there was Ray Rice. He was a great guy… very personable… friendly, happy. He was a nice guy… gave handshakes and took pictures. Rice was probably one of the nicest guys at the event. I have a lot of respect for him. He had a nice suit on, and he was really happy to just be at the awards.
After Rice, a few players showed up… noone (including the media) really recognized them, so there wasn’t much commotion.
A little later, Lloyd Carr walks in (the Bucknut fans didn’t boo! They said they like beating Carr every year b/c he is an easy win). Carr walked through the red carpet pretty quickly… he was all business. He had a posse with them, but I didn’t recognize any of them other than Leon Hall. Hall didn’t talk to anyone, he just stayed pace with Carr. More on Lloyd later.
Following the footsteps of Carr were Tressel and the Laurinitis family. The Bucknut fans gave a classy clap and kudos to their leader. People were cheering for Laurinitis and Tressel, both who seemed very gracious and kind. I saw Laurinitis’s dad and yelled out “THE ANNNNIMALLLLL!” He turned and laughed and acknowledged my efforts. Laurinitis was surprisingly small for a LB… but he was bulky.
Shortly after the OSU crew, Posluzny came down the carpet. The Pos was the friendliest player of the night by far. He was well-spoken and took pictures, signed autographs, talked to the fans… he was very appreciative of the support. Very classy guy.
Dick Butkus slipped in right beside me so he could skip the red carpet. He is still huge. He looks to be getting arthritic… he was a humped over. I told him that I was a huge fan and he thanked me. He seemed grumpy.
After about 6:55, most fans cleared out… there were only about 20 left. It must be noted that not all players walked the red carpet… there was an alternate entrance beside the red carpet that most people took (families, girlfriends, etc..). At about 7:05, there were only 11 fans left (including my wife and I… and the bucknuts…) – about 7 of the 11 fans left were Irish fans. Out of all the fanbases that attended, Notre Dame had the largest showing… surprisingly there were only about 5 Florida fans. I was told by another Irish fan that some fans were allowed to go into the auditorium last year to watch the awards…. So we stood outside… hoping to get in.
At 7:05, a man in a suit came running down the boardwalk, slipped under the red carpet rope, and went inside. Noone knew who he was. Turns out… it was Darren McFadden. More on him later…
At around 7:10, some people came running up late and were let inside… one guy tried to sell an extra ticket to the highest bidder. I heard a man offer $200… but the seller, who turned out to be a nice guy, gave his ticket to a random fan just begging to get inside. At 7:15, the production crew lead (she was a lady) allowed the 5 fans inside (2 irish fans… and the 3 bucknuts). She said she would come back out if there was more room. She also said that if I were to go in, I would have to leave my football outside. To my luck, she came back out 5 minutes later, and she said to me, “sir, can I have your football?” and she opened the rope for me to go in! She took took all remaining fans into the lobby. We stood there, waiting for the next commercial break, so we could go get our seats. After the Butkus award was announced, Dick Butkus left the Dance Hall… walked out into the lobby right by me again. He still seemed grumpy. That was the last I saw of Butkus. We were then lead in to our seats in the back right-hand side of the auditorium. Before we were seated, we were warned multiple times that if we caused ANY disruption whatsoever, they would kick us out immediately. We were hardly allowed to talk. My eyes searched endlessly for Charlie and co. Our seats were in the back of the room…. Only about 20’ away from the interview chairs (where Herbstreit and Coros interviewed Schiano and Carr and such).
I saw CJ win the Biletnikoff. Johnson is HUGE… He was by far the tallest guy in the room that I saw. Well-spoken? Not at all. I wonder if they edited his interview. He could hardly answer the questions they asked.
I had to pee really bad. I sat in my seat, crossing my legs, but I couldn’t hold it anymore. I asked the security officer if I could run to the bathroom, and he let me. So, I walked along the back row to the bathrooms just after Joe Thomas won the interior lineman award. On my way to the bathrooms, I saw Troy Smith walking towards me. Someone was talking into his ear and he had his head turned listening to him… so he didn’t see me, and he ran into me with his shoulder. I’ve heard reports that he is 6’-1”… lies. I am 5’-10”, and he is EXACTLY the same height as me. He was busy getting instructions from a production crew member, so he never said sorry for running into me, but it’s okay I suppose.
On the way to the bathroom, I see Brady and Charlie sitting together in the front row. I stood there for a few seconds and kind of gawked at them until a crew member asked me to move.
So, I get into the bathroom and pick out a urinal… Once I unzip my pants, I realize who is next to me taking a whizz…. Lloyd Carr. I was kind of surprised to be whizzing next to Lloyd. I didn’t know what to say. So, I stood there peeing… he kind of grunted. I said “Congrats on the season.” He said “Thanks.” It was kind of awkward trying to have a conversation with Lloyd with both of our manhoods hanging out. I stopped the conversation there… I said “good luck in Pasadena” and he acknowledged my effort. After I got done peeing, I went to wash my hands, and the guy who handed out the interior lineman award was standing next to me washing his hands. I said “Nice job presenting.” He said “you think? Was it okay? Did it sound good?” I said “yeah, you did a good job.” He said “Thanks, I appreciate that.” I said “Hey, I’m just happy to be here.” On my way out from the bathroom, I saw the Patrick guy from Louisville (the blind musician in the wheelchair) and Darren McFadden. McFadden was smiling… just happy to be at the ceremony. I walked by him and said “nice year, Darren… you are a machine.” He laughed and said thanks…. Shook my hand. He was a good guy. I wished him luck and he said it was nice to meet me.
I sat in my seat through the rest of the awards.. Reggie Nelson dropped by our bleacher seats and said hello to the fans… gave a nice smile. He had a pimp suit. He was very charismatic and friendly. He got jobbed… Aaron Ross should’ve never won the Thorpe award.
Who was the guy that played at Northwestern that presented the defensive player of the year award? He was intense. I met him and shook his hand… didn’t know him. I just said “it’s an honor to meet you.” He said “thanks, young man”. He was big.
During commerical breaks, the big screen on stage played all sorts of ESPN commericals… they were hilarious. It was cool to see the players in a relaxed environment… they would cut-up with each other… some really laughed a lot at some of the commercials. In the section to my left, it looked like a bunch of high school kids (maybe recruits) with their families. Fowler asked “Any gator fans here?” during a commerical, and one of the kids booed really loud…. Kind of funny. I also met Corso during a commercial break… I said “Hey Corso, you’re nut!” He laughed and thanked me. He’s a nice guy who loves his job.
It was interesting to watch the camera crew work the cameras and such… it seemed stressful for the workers. When Quinn won the Maxwell award, I couldn’t help me excitement… I jumped out of my seat and yelled out of shock. What an upset! I don’t remember too much of the interview on stage, b/c I was so elated with joy. After Brady received the award, I got a few other Irish fans to walk with me to cut him off from backstage so we could meet him, but we didn’t make it to the destination in time, and we saw him pass 15’ in front of us with a crew member. He went upstairs and we went back to our seats.
I waited anxiously for the awards to end. Once they did, ESPN went off air, and all of the players immediately pulled out their cell phones and started calling people. I ran over to the staircase with some other fans, waiting for Brady to come down. He did! The announcers called all award winners to stage. Brady stopped at the Patrick guy’s wheelchair, and spend about 2 minutes talking to him and signing an autograph for him and the works… what a great guy. After that, he came right past me, and I got to shake his hand and talk to him for a few seconds. Brady is MASSIVE. He dwarfed me. He was a really nice guy. We exchanged a few words, and he shook the hands of other fans on the way to the stage. I was estatic that I got to meet Quinn. He is the first Irish player that I have ever met. It was an honor. Charlie was down on the floor shaking hands with other coaches and players… security immediately blocked off entrance to the floor where all the people were so fans couldn’t go meet them.
Right after I met Quinn, the crew forced us to leave. So, I went back outside and got my football back. Fans waited outside for players and coaches to come out. This time, there were about 400 fans lining the red carpet. However, all players and coaches left out of the back exit and boarded the bus to their hotels. I ran over to the buses just in time to see Charlie boarding. I stood there with about 8 other Irish fans, and charlie was on his phone (hopefully talking to some recruit). He sat on the bus with Mora and waved at the fans. He was wearing one of his Super Bowl rings. Lloyd Carr and Tressel also boarded the bus and sat next to Weis. They shook hands and exchanged some words. It seemed civil. I stood there and watched as players boarded the bus to be taken to their hotels.
About an hour after the awards ended, my wife and I walked the boardwalk and enjoyed some of the entertainment. To my surprise, a LOT of players were also walking around. I got to meet Posluszny. He was the most gracious, well-spoken, intelligent, and friendly player I met. He shook my hand like 4 times! He talked, and he would’ve kept talking if I didn’t say, “well, I appreciate you taking the time to talk… but I’m sure you want to enjoy yourself… so thanks again and take care”. Such a great guy.
I also met the punter and kicker who won their awards. Seriously… the kicker was like 5’-7”. He was tiny, but he was a nice guy.
The night was incredible… there is just so much detail that I can share… and I left a lot of stuff out b/c I have already typed so much. Feel free to ask me any questions about specific players or about the award ceremonies or anything else that I have written. I’ll answer all of your questions if anything is unclear. It was one of the most amazing nights of my life… it was incredible. I look forward to your feedback, and like I said… I’ll answer any questions!
I left work early at 3:30 pm on Thursday. I made a quick stop at my house to change into my #3 Notre Dame Ron Powlus jersey (old skool) and pick up a football and a Sharpie marker and my camera. I left my house around 4:10 to pick up my wife from her work. We made a quick stop for some Taco Bell and headed to Orlando. The traffic was a little heavy, and we hit some delays. I was hoping to be outside the Dance Hall at 5:00 (since the awards started at 7 pm), but google maps gave me some vague directions to the Disney Boardwalk, and I was driving around the Disney complex for about 25 minutes trying to find the spot (you would think they would post some signs pointing to the Boardwalk). Finally, I find my destination, and I park my car (no cost for parking!). It was about 6:15 at this time. We walk on the boardwalk to the dance hall, and I see some other Notre Dame fans headed to the red carpet as well. We all walk to the hall together, but on the way (much to my dismay), a guy walks past us and says “You just missed Brady Quinn and the Shark.” I was pretty upset b/c my wife refused to run from the parking lot to the dining hall with me… so I basically missed my chance to meet the Notre Dame crew. So, finally, my wife runs with me to the red carpet. When we arrive, there were quite a few Irish fans there (one girl had a sign that read: “Brady! Kiss Me, I’m Irish!”). There were 3 Bucknuts to my right, a few Rutgers fans, a few Hawaii fans, a few Michigan fans, and a bunch of random onlookers. Overall, there were about 120 people lining the red carpet leading to the Dance Hall. While waiting for players to show, I was also informed that Weis had already gone inside (apparently Carlson didn’t come? I couldn’t find him anywhere all night).
I talked to the Bucknuts while standing outside… they were actually really nice. After they ragged on the Irish for winning the Commander-in-Chief trophy, they started telling me that the Irish were scared to join the Big 10 (in a joking manner), but they needed to join in order to get respect. I replied that “Notre Dame doesn’t need the Big 10… the Big 10 needs Notre Dame.” It didn’t go over too well… one Bucknut harped on Notre Dame for beating Navy 43 straight times saying, “that’s such an easy win… what a patsy schedule.” So I asked him why he thought Navy/Army/AF was worse than Cincy/NIU/Illinois/Bowling Green/Indiana/Nwestern. No answer =) But, I was able to have some intelligent conversation with the OSU fans… like I said, they were nice guys… but of course, we had to take some shots at each other – all in fun. I really enjoyed their company. So… now to the players:
The first player to walk the red carpet while I was there was Ray Rice. He was a great guy… very personable… friendly, happy. He was a nice guy… gave handshakes and took pictures. Rice was probably one of the nicest guys at the event. I have a lot of respect for him. He had a nice suit on, and he was really happy to just be at the awards.
After Rice, a few players showed up… noone (including the media) really recognized them, so there wasn’t much commotion.
A little later, Lloyd Carr walks in (the Bucknut fans didn’t boo! They said they like beating Carr every year b/c he is an easy win). Carr walked through the red carpet pretty quickly… he was all business. He had a posse with them, but I didn’t recognize any of them other than Leon Hall. Hall didn’t talk to anyone, he just stayed pace with Carr. More on Lloyd later.
Following the footsteps of Carr were Tressel and the Laurinitis family. The Bucknut fans gave a classy clap and kudos to their leader. People were cheering for Laurinitis and Tressel, both who seemed very gracious and kind. I saw Laurinitis’s dad and yelled out “THE ANNNNIMALLLLL!” He turned and laughed and acknowledged my efforts. Laurinitis was surprisingly small for a LB… but he was bulky.
Shortly after the OSU crew, Posluzny came down the carpet. The Pos was the friendliest player of the night by far. He was well-spoken and took pictures, signed autographs, talked to the fans… he was very appreciative of the support. Very classy guy.
Dick Butkus slipped in right beside me so he could skip the red carpet. He is still huge. He looks to be getting arthritic… he was a humped over. I told him that I was a huge fan and he thanked me. He seemed grumpy.
After about 6:55, most fans cleared out… there were only about 20 left. It must be noted that not all players walked the red carpet… there was an alternate entrance beside the red carpet that most people took (families, girlfriends, etc..). At about 7:05, there were only 11 fans left (including my wife and I… and the bucknuts…) – about 7 of the 11 fans left were Irish fans. Out of all the fanbases that attended, Notre Dame had the largest showing… surprisingly there were only about 5 Florida fans. I was told by another Irish fan that some fans were allowed to go into the auditorium last year to watch the awards…. So we stood outside… hoping to get in.
At 7:05, a man in a suit came running down the boardwalk, slipped under the red carpet rope, and went inside. Noone knew who he was. Turns out… it was Darren McFadden. More on him later…
At around 7:10, some people came running up late and were let inside… one guy tried to sell an extra ticket to the highest bidder. I heard a man offer $200… but the seller, who turned out to be a nice guy, gave his ticket to a random fan just begging to get inside. At 7:15, the production crew lead (she was a lady) allowed the 5 fans inside (2 irish fans… and the 3 bucknuts). She said she would come back out if there was more room. She also said that if I were to go in, I would have to leave my football outside. To my luck, she came back out 5 minutes later, and she said to me, “sir, can I have your football?” and she opened the rope for me to go in! She took took all remaining fans into the lobby. We stood there, waiting for the next commercial break, so we could go get our seats. After the Butkus award was announced, Dick Butkus left the Dance Hall… walked out into the lobby right by me again. He still seemed grumpy. That was the last I saw of Butkus. We were then lead in to our seats in the back right-hand side of the auditorium. Before we were seated, we were warned multiple times that if we caused ANY disruption whatsoever, they would kick us out immediately. We were hardly allowed to talk. My eyes searched endlessly for Charlie and co. Our seats were in the back of the room…. Only about 20’ away from the interview chairs (where Herbstreit and Coros interviewed Schiano and Carr and such).
I saw CJ win the Biletnikoff. Johnson is HUGE… He was by far the tallest guy in the room that I saw. Well-spoken? Not at all. I wonder if they edited his interview. He could hardly answer the questions they asked.
I had to pee really bad. I sat in my seat, crossing my legs, but I couldn’t hold it anymore. I asked the security officer if I could run to the bathroom, and he let me. So, I walked along the back row to the bathrooms just after Joe Thomas won the interior lineman award. On my way to the bathrooms, I saw Troy Smith walking towards me. Someone was talking into his ear and he had his head turned listening to him… so he didn’t see me, and he ran into me with his shoulder. I’ve heard reports that he is 6’-1”… lies. I am 5’-10”, and he is EXACTLY the same height as me. He was busy getting instructions from a production crew member, so he never said sorry for running into me, but it’s okay I suppose.
On the way to the bathroom, I see Brady and Charlie sitting together in the front row. I stood there for a few seconds and kind of gawked at them until a crew member asked me to move.
So, I get into the bathroom and pick out a urinal… Once I unzip my pants, I realize who is next to me taking a whizz…. Lloyd Carr. I was kind of surprised to be whizzing next to Lloyd. I didn’t know what to say. So, I stood there peeing… he kind of grunted. I said “Congrats on the season.” He said “Thanks.” It was kind of awkward trying to have a conversation with Lloyd with both of our manhoods hanging out. I stopped the conversation there… I said “good luck in Pasadena” and he acknowledged my effort. After I got done peeing, I went to wash my hands, and the guy who handed out the interior lineman award was standing next to me washing his hands. I said “Nice job presenting.” He said “you think? Was it okay? Did it sound good?” I said “yeah, you did a good job.” He said “Thanks, I appreciate that.” I said “Hey, I’m just happy to be here.” On my way out from the bathroom, I saw the Patrick guy from Louisville (the blind musician in the wheelchair) and Darren McFadden. McFadden was smiling… just happy to be at the ceremony. I walked by him and said “nice year, Darren… you are a machine.” He laughed and said thanks…. Shook my hand. He was a good guy. I wished him luck and he said it was nice to meet me.
I sat in my seat through the rest of the awards.. Reggie Nelson dropped by our bleacher seats and said hello to the fans… gave a nice smile. He had a pimp suit. He was very charismatic and friendly. He got jobbed… Aaron Ross should’ve never won the Thorpe award.
Who was the guy that played at Northwestern that presented the defensive player of the year award? He was intense. I met him and shook his hand… didn’t know him. I just said “it’s an honor to meet you.” He said “thanks, young man”. He was big.
During commerical breaks, the big screen on stage played all sorts of ESPN commericals… they were hilarious. It was cool to see the players in a relaxed environment… they would cut-up with each other… some really laughed a lot at some of the commercials. In the section to my left, it looked like a bunch of high school kids (maybe recruits) with their families. Fowler asked “Any gator fans here?” during a commerical, and one of the kids booed really loud…. Kind of funny. I also met Corso during a commercial break… I said “Hey Corso, you’re nut!” He laughed and thanked me. He’s a nice guy who loves his job.
It was interesting to watch the camera crew work the cameras and such… it seemed stressful for the workers. When Quinn won the Maxwell award, I couldn’t help me excitement… I jumped out of my seat and yelled out of shock. What an upset! I don’t remember too much of the interview on stage, b/c I was so elated with joy. After Brady received the award, I got a few other Irish fans to walk with me to cut him off from backstage so we could meet him, but we didn’t make it to the destination in time, and we saw him pass 15’ in front of us with a crew member. He went upstairs and we went back to our seats.
I waited anxiously for the awards to end. Once they did, ESPN went off air, and all of the players immediately pulled out their cell phones and started calling people. I ran over to the staircase with some other fans, waiting for Brady to come down. He did! The announcers called all award winners to stage. Brady stopped at the Patrick guy’s wheelchair, and spend about 2 minutes talking to him and signing an autograph for him and the works… what a great guy. After that, he came right past me, and I got to shake his hand and talk to him for a few seconds. Brady is MASSIVE. He dwarfed me. He was a really nice guy. We exchanged a few words, and he shook the hands of other fans on the way to the stage. I was estatic that I got to meet Quinn. He is the first Irish player that I have ever met. It was an honor. Charlie was down on the floor shaking hands with other coaches and players… security immediately blocked off entrance to the floor where all the people were so fans couldn’t go meet them.
Right after I met Quinn, the crew forced us to leave. So, I went back outside and got my football back. Fans waited outside for players and coaches to come out. This time, there were about 400 fans lining the red carpet. However, all players and coaches left out of the back exit and boarded the bus to their hotels. I ran over to the buses just in time to see Charlie boarding. I stood there with about 8 other Irish fans, and charlie was on his phone (hopefully talking to some recruit). He sat on the bus with Mora and waved at the fans. He was wearing one of his Super Bowl rings. Lloyd Carr and Tressel also boarded the bus and sat next to Weis. They shook hands and exchanged some words. It seemed civil. I stood there and watched as players boarded the bus to be taken to their hotels.
About an hour after the awards ended, my wife and I walked the boardwalk and enjoyed some of the entertainment. To my surprise, a LOT of players were also walking around. I got to meet Posluszny. He was the most gracious, well-spoken, intelligent, and friendly player I met. He shook my hand like 4 times! He talked, and he would’ve kept talking if I didn’t say, “well, I appreciate you taking the time to talk… but I’m sure you want to enjoy yourself… so thanks again and take care”. Such a great guy.
I also met the punter and kicker who won their awards. Seriously… the kicker was like 5’-7”. He was tiny, but he was a nice guy.
The night was incredible… there is just so much detail that I can share… and I left a lot of stuff out b/c I have already typed so much. Feel free to ask me any questions about specific players or about the award ceremonies or anything else that I have written. I’ll answer all of your questions if anything is unclear. It was one of the most amazing nights of my life… it was incredible. I look forward to your feedback, and like I said… I’ll answer any questions!
