With the pending changes at Duck Sports Authority, every Tuesday through the month of June I am going to share some of the best moments from DSA Tailgate history. These have been a staple for as long as I have been a part of Duck Sports Authority and there are some personal favorites that I want to share with everyone who has made this site so special to me and my family.
Today I start with my favorite trip tailgate – except the tailgate was not the best part of the trip.
In 2013, AJ and I went to the Virginia game early in the season and I think that the most memorable part of this is what I will call our pre-tailgate the night before. As many of you know, I am not much of a sleeper and that has its place in this story.
I picked up AJ the day before the game pretty early in the day and our hotel was right next to an Applebee’s in Charlottesville. After picking AJ up and heading to the hotel we went over to the Applebee’s ostensibly for lunch. And then we stayed there until around eight o’clock at night. We had a fantastic time engaging with Cavalier fans and other patrons. Almost all of them were very fun and gracious.
AJ was pretty tired and we went back to the room – but he went straight to sleep and I was bored as heck. So, I walked back over to the Applebee’s but they would not serve me! Apparently their policy was if you were there and had adult beverages, you could not return later in the day for more of those adult beverages. I stayed anyway because there is no way I can got to sleep at what was essentially 5:00 pm back in Oregon. It just wasn’t going to happen.
The next morning AJ got up very early to start working. Since most of my job would not come until the game itself that day, I took the opportunity to check out Monticello before the game.
We got to the game and wandered around some of the tailgates – found AJ’s brother for a bit and checked out some other tailgates before heading into the press box. And, let me just say that to this day – almost 12 years later – that was still the absolute best press box food I have ever experienced (And don’t even get me STARTED on the worst hint: it was at Oregon State and involved stale popcorn and the cheapest hot dogs on earth).
We had bacon wrapped meatloaf and bacon mashed potatoes and to this day I long for that food one more time. Most important was not the food – it was spending time with a good friend, having a great time and creating memories.
You see, that is really what DSA has been for me for these 20 years – a family of football fans as crazy as myself who I love spending time with. People have asked me if I will miss having my name on stories, or covering the games from the press box and the answer is easy: NO! I will miss all of those other things that will be lost. I will miss hanging out with friends and talking football.
Today I start with my favorite trip tailgate – except the tailgate was not the best part of the trip.
In 2013, AJ and I went to the Virginia game early in the season and I think that the most memorable part of this is what I will call our pre-tailgate the night before. As many of you know, I am not much of a sleeper and that has its place in this story.
I picked up AJ the day before the game pretty early in the day and our hotel was right next to an Applebee’s in Charlottesville. After picking AJ up and heading to the hotel we went over to the Applebee’s ostensibly for lunch. And then we stayed there until around eight o’clock at night. We had a fantastic time engaging with Cavalier fans and other patrons. Almost all of them were very fun and gracious.
AJ was pretty tired and we went back to the room – but he went straight to sleep and I was bored as heck. So, I walked back over to the Applebee’s but they would not serve me! Apparently their policy was if you were there and had adult beverages, you could not return later in the day for more of those adult beverages. I stayed anyway because there is no way I can got to sleep at what was essentially 5:00 pm back in Oregon. It just wasn’t going to happen.
The next morning AJ got up very early to start working. Since most of my job would not come until the game itself that day, I took the opportunity to check out Monticello before the game.
We got to the game and wandered around some of the tailgates – found AJ’s brother for a bit and checked out some other tailgates before heading into the press box. And, let me just say that to this day – almost 12 years later – that was still the absolute best press box food I have ever experienced (And don’t even get me STARTED on the worst hint: it was at Oregon State and involved stale popcorn and the cheapest hot dogs on earth).
We had bacon wrapped meatloaf and bacon mashed potatoes and to this day I long for that food one more time. Most important was not the food – it was spending time with a good friend, having a great time and creating memories.
You see, that is really what DSA has been for me for these 20 years – a family of football fans as crazy as myself who I love spending time with. People have asked me if I will miss having my name on stories, or covering the games from the press box and the answer is easy: NO! I will miss all of those other things that will be lost. I will miss hanging out with friends and talking football.
