Yeah...It Sucked.

There is my answer to everyone who wants to know from me, my thoughts on the big Missouri lost over the weekend....


It sucked really bad. And Chase did not look good. At all. They should now call him Chase Away. Because that is what he did to all his (and our) Heisman hopes.


Even the beer I tried to drink after the game tasted like defeat.


The interesting part is the many things that happen that brought me to be in Columbia, in pretty good seats, for this depressing game.


Here's the quick version of the story in bullet point fashion:

(It's going to seem like some of these points are way off topic, but it will all come together in the end. Promise.)



* I had tickets to the New Kids on the Block concert in Chicago.


* I thought the concert was on October 11th, which is the weekend I asked off for work.


*Originally, work forgot about my vacation time request, and scheduled me on a program.


*I fought for it, and eventually was granted the weekend of October 11th off.


*Around the end of September, I realize that the NKOTB concert is actually on October 4th.


* I am unable to go because of work, but still have the weekend of October 11th off, and I am looking forward to doing nothing that weekend.


* I get invited to a day at the Missouri wineries with a friend and his friends. I accept and plan on going.


* Around Wednesday of last week, I realize that this is the only weekend I will have to possibly see a Mizzou game in Columbia all season. I also realize that if I am at the Missouri wineries on Saturday, I will be less than an hour away, and it is a night game. Furthermore, I find out I know oodles of people who are going to the game and have tailgates planned.


* I decide I want to do both wineries and Mizzou game. However, the game is completely sold out and no one I know has extra tickets. I also think that since it is so last minute, no one is going to want to drive with me to the wineries and then Columbia to try to scalp tickets when we get there.


*On Friday, I find out that Tiffani also wanted to go to the game, but would only go if we had tickets for sure. She had also agreed to pick me up at the wineries on her way to Columbia, and we could ride the rest of the way to the game together. We scour Ebay; Craigs List; etc. to try and find any tickets at a reasonable price.


*By late Friday night, we could not find any tickets, and it looked like I was back to Plan A of driving myself, and hoping to scalp one ticket, and most likely sitting myself at the game.


*Miraculously Saturday morning, Tiffani finds a guy selling 2 tickets for a good price, but we have to meet him in Columbia to buy them. She agrees to go. I am psyched.

*I make the determination that since I did not get my act together early enough, I really don't have time to go to the wineries. Plus, the whole stress of how we are going to organize Tiffani picking me up was getting very confusing. I call my friend and tell him I am out on the winery and owe him a day of wine drinking.

*Tiffani and I leave for Columbia with the intent of finding two different groups of tailgaters, and then possibly meeting another couple of friends at Harpo's before the game.

*We get to Columbia, and amazingly, everything seemed very easy. We found a free place in park in a garage very quickly.

* We had a little problem connecting with the guy selling the tickets, because he was on a bike riding around campus. We couldn't seem to figure out where each other was. Then, very coincidentally, I see this dude riding his bike right down the street in front of us, think it must be him, and we end up with good tix on about the 30 yards line, only 33 rows up.

*Then we start looking for the 2 tailgates, and we basically fell into the first one, and then found the second one in about 2 minutes.

*The friends we were supposed to met at Harpo's, ended up being very close to us when walking into the tunnel to the stadium. So, we entered the game having seem almost all the people we wanted to, and, also being able to sneak all my mini bottles of alcohol in!

*So there we were. Everything had fallen into place, with the fact that we were even there, the tickets, the ride, finding everyone. Now we were in Columbia with the Tigers boosting a 5-0 record, and 3rd place ranking. We were among 68,000 screaming Mizzou fans dressed in Gold and black, all very hopeful. It was AWESOME! Then the game began........

* And it was all downhill from there.

*Not going to rehash the details, but it was nerve raking, and disappointing, and then inspiring for like 2 minutes, and back to nerve racking.

*Then when the game was over, it took us almost 2 hours to get out of the parking lot. A fitting end to a sad, sad game.

*The aforementioned beer, that tasted like defeat, was a 22 oz. can purchased at the gas station on the way home. So depressing. Yet so necessary after the carnage that I had just witnessed.



So, the question I have been pondering (and stressing myself out about) since Saturday night is ...



....Did I jinx the Tigers? Was I fated to see this losing game? Let's look at the evidence....


Afterall, I had written that crazy self serving blog a week before, about how awesome we were and everything (see 2 blogs back). I tried to make it clear that I was still going to be a fan, win or lose, but let's be honest.....I didn't really think we were going to lose.

And it did seem that despite all the roadblocks, I was able to make it to the game with little drama. Was it too easy? Did I think fate was on my side for working everything out and actually being in Columbia? Was I too cocky debating all week whether I wanted Oklahoma or Texas to win...very stressed about who I wanted to be the victor of that matchup, and how it would affect Mizzou. I never even stopped to consider the chance that Mizzou might actually lose.

Well, its done. We lost a game. We will not be undefeated. And unless everyone else loses too, we will not be in a National Championship game. Yeah, it sucks.

One of the blogs I read make a very good point about this game, and why we MU fans are all so depressed.

We lost a game we were supposed to win.

And that has not happen in over two years.

Now, we have won games we were supposed to lose. We have lost games we were supposed to lose. But, we had not lost a game we were supposed to win. And that is why it is so painful. It was unexpected.

So, time to move on. We have a big game against Texas in Texas to win this week. And we are not favored to. And I remember a certain game in Texas my freshman year at Mizzou where Texas beat us 73-0 that I would like to take revenge for. I want to kill the Longhorns on their own turf. I want us to play like the team I know we can be. I can't wait for my Tigers to shine again!

So, I will end this with the same way I ended my last blog on Missouri Tiger football, That blog was a lot more hopeful and confident than this one, but this one phrase still rings very true for me.....

Missouri Tiger Football.

That's MY team, and win or lose, it always will be.