Some Football over Poker... (Part 2 of 3) Auburn
So, I planned on sitting down to play Texas Hold'em poker Saturday morning. Changed that up to go to a farm. Got back to the Auburn-Arkansas game and put dabbling in some Omaha til later in the weekend. I've told you that much. I left you hanging with an email from my mom who knows about as much about football as the kid that sports an ascot on Glee. Here's her email:
"How about that Auburn football game Saturday! Cameron Newton is great. He can throw, he can run, he can fly, he can leap over tall linemen with a single bound! Wow! What a player! Your daddy and I watched the 65-43 game Saturday in the family room. Almost everytime I went into the kitchen, when I returned to the family room, someone had made a touchdown!"
I think if I were to ask her the names of other Auburn football players she'd probably only say Pat Sullivan and Bo Jackson. There is some significance to that for those of you with a casual knowledge of college football history.
I think she might know “Cadillac” too, but I'm not sure. I will double check. The only sports team she comes close to watching is Auburn football and usually that consists of watching the Iron Bowl if Auburn is competitive in the game. That's it.
She’s the woman that used to cheer for the opposite team when I was playing sports as a kid because she couldn’t follow the action accurately. I used to run by the sideline and say, “Not the right time to clap mom.” “We’re shooting on the other goal, mom.” That was a bit of a distraction, but then I'd look at the families of our star basketball player showing up to games in sweatshirts bedazzled with "I'm XXX's mom!" ... or sister... or cousin, and I'd think maybe a mom that didn't know what was going on wasn't that bad a thing.
If she's paying attention to an Arkanasas game this early in the season I can't imagine what the general population of Alabama is doing in terms of getting excited for the team and for Newton.
Apparently, the name thing is genetic. Her mother is a Duke basketball fan. She's a much bigger sports fan than my mom. She watches every Duke basketball game, having gone there, but she only knows the names of the white kids unless he's Jason Williams, and Shane Battier (is he not white?). She’s 90 something and grew up in a different time. She’s also over the last 10 years had quite a shift in her thinking due to new members of her family. She’s definitely a lot more open-minded about a lot of things including race.
But some habits die hard. Several great basketball players have never gotten past the "boy" moniker. Conversations often go like, "Did you see when that boy shot that ball to win the game?" Depending on the era I would go "You mean Johnny Dawkins?" knowing it wasn't Danny Ferry, or "You mean Elton Brand?, or "You mean Carlos Boozer?"
She's also a Braves fan. You better believe she can tell you more than you want to know about Chipper Jones, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, and others... but the likely NL Rookie of the Year, is still "that young boy." He hasn't quite made it yet... as my Grandmother doesn't admit to knowing his name.
It's fun being an Auburn fan this year. This team easily could have only two wins. Instead they are undefeated, in the top five, and playing another top 10 team for the SEC's inside track for the national championship (at least until Bama plays them both). The team they play also could have more losses than wins but is undefeated. The Mad Hatter has no offense and another defense stocked by future NFLers
... more on my LSU-Auburn analysis to come tomorrow...
"How about that Auburn football game Saturday! Cameron Newton is great. He can throw, he can run, he can fly, he can leap over tall linemen with a single bound! Wow! What a player! Your daddy and I watched the 65-43 game Saturday in the family room. Almost everytime I went into the kitchen, when I returned to the family room, someone had made a touchdown!"
I think if I were to ask her the names of other Auburn football players she'd probably only say Pat Sullivan and Bo Jackson. There is some significance to that for those of you with a casual knowledge of college football history.
I think she might know “Cadillac” too, but I'm not sure. I will double check. The only sports team she comes close to watching is Auburn football and usually that consists of watching the Iron Bowl if Auburn is competitive in the game. That's it.
She’s the woman that used to cheer for the opposite team when I was playing sports as a kid because she couldn’t follow the action accurately. I used to run by the sideline and say, “Not the right time to clap mom.” “We’re shooting on the other goal, mom.” That was a bit of a distraction, but then I'd look at the families of our star basketball player showing up to games in sweatshirts bedazzled with "I'm XXX's mom!" ... or sister... or cousin, and I'd think maybe a mom that didn't know what was going on wasn't that bad a thing.
If she's paying attention to an Arkanasas game this early in the season I can't imagine what the general population of Alabama is doing in terms of getting excited for the team and for Newton.
Apparently, the name thing is genetic. Her mother is a Duke basketball fan. She's a much bigger sports fan than my mom. She watches every Duke basketball game, having gone there, but she only knows the names of the white kids unless he's Jason Williams, and Shane Battier (is he not white?). She’s 90 something and grew up in a different time. She’s also over the last 10 years had quite a shift in her thinking due to new members of her family. She’s definitely a lot more open-minded about a lot of things including race.
But some habits die hard. Several great basketball players have never gotten past the "boy" moniker. Conversations often go like, "Did you see when that boy shot that ball to win the game?" Depending on the era I would go "You mean Johnny Dawkins?" knowing it wasn't Danny Ferry, or "You mean Elton Brand?, or "You mean Carlos Boozer?"
She's also a Braves fan. You better believe she can tell you more than you want to know about Chipper Jones, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, and others... but the likely NL Rookie of the Year, is still "that young boy." He hasn't quite made it yet... as my Grandmother doesn't admit to knowing his name.
It's fun being an Auburn fan this year. This team easily could have only two wins. Instead they are undefeated, in the top five, and playing another top 10 team for the SEC's inside track for the national championship (at least until Bama plays them both). The team they play also could have more losses than wins but is undefeated. The Mad Hatter has no offense and another defense stocked by future NFLers
... more on my LSU-Auburn analysis to come tomorrow...
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