Well, I’m sitting here watching Auburn and Oregon in the National Championship game, and there’s about five minutes left, which I figure is plenty of time for me to crank out a blog post and distract myself from the end of the game. Because THE NERVES, OH MY WORD, THE NERVES. I realize that I don’t really have a dog in the fight, of course, but it’s the National Championship game and sort of a big deal and one of the teams will be heartbroken at the end and oh my goodness why didn’t I just save my nervous system the anguish and watch “The Bachelor” instead?
Come to think of it, “The Bachelor” would have been certain anguish, too. Just an entirely different variety.
*****
Now it’s about 20 minutes after I started this post, and my plan didn’t work. The end of the game got so crazy that I had no choice but to stand up and pace. There’s not a doubt in my mind that if Mississippi State ever finds itself in a similar national title situation, I would not be able to handle it. I would vacuum myself straight to the emergency room, where I would admit myself and push my vacuum to the side of the examination table and then lie there quietly until Sister texted me to tell me the score of the game and that it was all going to be okay. That’s the only way I’d survive it.
And speaking of hospitals and sports (there’s a transition, huh?), have I ever told y’all the story about when I was watching State in the SEC basketball tournament championship the Sunday after Alex was born? I was still in the hospital, and the little guy was all of two days old, and the Bulldogs were playing the Kentucky Wildcats. I was still hooked up to some IVs and monitors and whathaveyou, so I was fairly limited in terms of my motion while watching the game. I couldn’t pace, couldn’t vacuum (obviously), couldn’t obsessively wash and fold clothes – I just had to lie there and watch and occasionally cheer. But do you know that I got so riled up just lying there that I set off the alarm on the blood pressure monitor at least three different times? OH YES I DID.
What can I say? MAMA HAS SOME ISSUES.
Anyway, I didn’t hit that level of interest and/or stress watching tonight’s National Championship game, but I did very much enjoy that the outcome was settled in the final few seconds. I always get nervous when a game comes down to a field goal – my codependency sets in and I become VERY CONCERNED for the field goal kicker and start to think about all the regret he’ll have to live with if he doesn’t make the kick and how all the other players will try to act like it’s no big deal, you couldn’t help it, you didn’t mean to miss the kick, but way deep down the other players will resent the kicker like crazy because THAT’S HIS ONLY JOB. TO KICK THE BALL THROUGH THE UPRIGHTS. HE DOESN’T EVEN HAVE TO LEARN THE PLAYS.
See? I might need to find a hobby. So that I can stop worrying about potential outcomes in hypothetical football-related scenarios.
I have to say, though, that tonight I didn’t really think about the Auburn kicker as much as I normally would. He’s been reliable all season, so I felt like he’d hold up well under the pressure. And really, the thing that captured my interest the most when it was all said and done was not the post-kick celebration – it was something that Cam Newton did right before he ran onto the field to celebrate Auburn’s victory.
HE USED HIS TOWEL AS A CAPELET.
It delighted and confused me all at the same time. Some of you may remember that we recently had a Capelet Experience of our own, so I was really sort of tickled (albeit puzzled) that Cam would go with the capelet option on what was certainly the most memorable football victory of his life. Because it wasn’t like he just happened to be holding a towel and hung it around his neck for the sake of convenience. He took the time to shake it out. To place it. To make sure it was just like he wanted it.
I have no idea why, of course. But I wondered if maybe at some point in his early teenage years Cam had dreamed about what it might be like to win a National Championship, and maybe somewhere in that mental picture he oh-so-casually had a towel draped across his shoulders in a devil-may-care but distinctively capelet-esque fashion. I know that when I was 13 or 14 I used to picture how I might look when I finally had a driver’s license and was hanging out after Sunday night church with my car keys in one hand and my purse in the other, chatting all grown-up like with my friends and HOLDING MY OWN KEYCHAIN WITH MY VERY OWN CAR KEYS, and as a result of all that daydreaming I’m sure I eventually adopted some of those behaviors when I had my real-live license and my real-live keys.
Perhaps the same can be said of Cam and his towel capelet.
Regardless, Cam clearly had some goals for this football season. And tonight? Well, I’m pretty sure that the last of his dreams for this season came true.
SEC Championship? Check.
Heisman Trophy? Check.
National Championship? Check.
Rockin’ the post-game towel capelet? OH, CHECK IT.
Congratulations, Auburn!
And rock on, SEC.
Now I have capelet envy!
And look… Cam’s was even shorter than Alex’s! Although Alex rocked his capelet, too!!
I live in the Middle East and we rock pashminas! Well, at least in my head I’m rockin’ it. I sure in reality it may look a bit more like a white lady trying to look like she knows what she is doing!
It’s what the NASCAR driver’s do when they win. Display the sponsors’ stuff. Is that against the rules, cause that sure looks like what he was doing. Ha!
When I had my second baby in September 1991, the Braves were playing their “worst to first” season. I know of what you speak!
Ok, you have now confirmed I am a normal person watching college football. I thought I was the only weird one out there that had to keep themselves busy in order not to lose it while watching a bunch of guys in tight fitting pants running a pigskin up and down the field. Is there a support group for people like us?
Loved the story of you in the hospital. Praise the Lord both of my children were born after football season. (I am not so much in other sports.)
Thanks for your postings. They always bring a laugh my way.
Terrie
I too am a terrible worrier about the emotional state of all the players, win or lose. And I can’t help but always cry when I think about how proud their Mommas are that they are playing… And just happy and healthy. And I clearly need to take my hormones.
Thanks for the post!
Maybe Cam read your blog, and has since decided to start rocking the capelet! It’s possible!
I always think about the mental and emotional state of the kicker too, in college and pro. Sunday night when the Colts were playing the Jets, and there was a field goal attempt in the very last seconds, I couldn’t even watch. I just kept thinking, “If he misses, he will remember this moment and how he messed up THE REST OF HIS LIFE.” Stresses. Me. Out.
As the mom of a former baseball player, I feel such empathy for the moms of the players. The guy from Boise State? His mom! Bless her heart! College football is the best; sorry to see this season end!
You CRACK me UP!
Your ‘ramblings’ are the best.
Glad to hear I’m not the only one who worries about the kicker’s mental state. I have been known to cook and clean during Bama games or rock in my chair like crazy. Glad for the SEC.
I’m with Southern Gal – can you say PRODUCT PLACEMENT?? I’m surprised he didn’t rock a pair of Mickey Mouse ears, too!
Total product placement/attempt to get a sponsor.
What about that piece of confetti that was stuck to his head during the entire interview???? Could he not feel that?!?!?!
I’m a diehard Auburn fan and alum, and I was a nervous wreck last night. I’m 4 months pregnant, and it seemed like both me and the baby were wiggle worms! I think I posted facebook status updates every 3 minutes the entire game! And talk about pressure on the kicker; I would have choked!
And I noticed the capelet, but I’m oh so glad you did a blog on it!
WARRRRR EAGLE!
My favorite line of this post: “…..and maybe somewhere in that mental picture he oh-so-casually had a towel draped across his shoulders in a devil-may-care but distinctively capelet-esque fashion..”
This made me howl with laughter. :-)
It’s his “SUPER CAM” cape!!! War Eagle!!!
I was the only one left awake at my house by the end of the game and it was torture! Couldn’t yell, couldn’t look at anyone with my mouth hanging open… I was exhausted when it was over. Gotta say, I’ve had those same thoughts about the kicker..HIGH pressure…but only sometimes.
Thanks for the laugh!
I spent the first half of last night’s game wondering what Oregon’s uniform designer was smoking when he/she came up with those awful day-glo socks!
And I have to agree-I think the capelet was product placement, too…
As a Gator stuck out in Big 12 country, I am thrilled that once again, the SEC dominates, and proves again it’s the best conference in college football!
My husband is a rabid UK fan. They were playing while I was in labor with my oldest daughter – he remembers more about that game than he does about her birth!
How much do you think he’s going to get for that sly product placement? It was a great game but I don’t think my heart could have taken much more. Can’t wait for next season. GO DUCKS!
Oh, I laughed so hard at this post! And I felt so much better that I wasn’t the only teenager who had worked out how the “big” life moments of my high school years would play out well in advance. :) If I had the hours back I spent picturing my senior Homecoming, well…I was going to say I’d do great things with that time, but I’d probably just use it reading blogs or something entertaining like that!
Codependency. Now there’s a word I understand quite well.
And your description of your young visions of how you’d act when you had your license……GOLD. I totally did that too. I also had visions of how I’d act if the hunkiest senior football player asked me out once I got to high school.
He never did.
Thank goodness, I say, in hindsight.
Love this post Boomama!
Oh, I thought all the game stresses were going to induce labor! I do think that the tigers out-played my little ducks, but my prediction is that Cam’s checklist might get a wee bit shorter as soon as someone comes to take away that heisman…shady shady. He can keep his capalet memories though! And congrats on a SEC win.
I don’t think you ever have to worry about watching your Mississippi State team in the National Championship! HA!! :)
I feel the exact same way about the field goal kicker. It stresses me out to no end.
I still haven’t breathed yet. And every single muscle in my body is sore from being tense for 3 solid hours last night. But ALL of my laundry is folded!
WAR EAGLE!!!!!!
oh sister! THAT is hysterical!! i can’t believe i went to bed before catching that!
Taking the “Super Cam” a little too close to heart maybe??
War Eagle!
Love this post! I can assure you I was shoved into a tiny living room with 30 other AU students and wishing I had the room to pace!
I love your blog, by the way! You are so entertaining!
Blessings,
Ashlynn
I always think about the kickers mamma and how she must feel at that moment. Nothing like a 3-2 count with bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth with a one-run lead to send the mamma of the pitcher to the back of the bleachers to pace. For the sake of whoever CG is up there, I’m gonna start thinking that Mullen may take the Dawgs to that game oneday! I mean, if AUBURN can make it….!!!!
LOVED the post! And, I also worry about the kicker in a situation like that! I also must say to CG that hope always reigns supreme in the heart of every MSU fan! Right?
We live in Oregon, but I grew up in Auburn and went to school there, so we are huge Auburn fans. My sixteen year old daughter was pacing for most of the game and when the Ducks tied it up , she abruptly announced, “I have to clean the kitchen” which makes me wonder if you might be a long lost relative!
I think he is looking for a Gatorade endorsement deal. That’s what I think. ;0) And I laughed OUTLOUD when I read capelette.
I must confess I only watched a little portion. I even forgot it was on…which I’ve never done before. I guess I just couldn’t get excited for Auburn vs. Oregon. Maybe Florida and Alabama or something but something about this game just wasn’t that interesting…at first. But when I heard it went down the wire, I was sorry I missed that part. As a Big 12 girl (go pokes!), I have a special place in my heart for SEC teams. Mainly because they are the only conference that hits as hard as we do and are as crazy about football :) Congrats to Auburn.
From Oregon- big Duck fans here. That post was SO funny! Just found your blog the other day- now bookmarked! Love it.
I’m with you….bored outta my mind until the last 5 minutes then I was wild. And YES I was thinking the same thing about the kicker!! I’m sure we have enough emotional issues for all of them!! Maybe we should put out an announcement to all kickers that they no longer have to bear the burden of emotional strife when it comes to last second field goals that BooMama and SammaSpot have that covered for them. :0) I think they will be pleased!! I love your energy and enthusiasm….stay cool BooMama.
Oh the pacing @ my house!!! I have told my husband 1000 times in our 18 yr marriage there is no excuse to miss a FG …it is your only job!! Now we had double pacing going on @ our house because I am married to an LSU fan and they might have been looking for a new coach. Michigan was meeting w/Les last night. But Les stayed YAY ! And I have a National Championship. So glad Wes Byrum had the honors of winning the game. He is a Sr and paid his dues @ AU. Kodi Burns, a former AU QB, scored a TD and that meant so much too. Because he could have left AU but stayed on. Cam is great but he is not anywhere near Bo in my book. He may find $ in the NFL but not the love our AU family can bestow on you. Chizik is pretty fantastic too. Was not my 1st choice but I’m ALL IN now. Just wish my sweet Daddy could have been there for this. He taught me to love AU through good and bad. WOW long comment…I ‘ll end w/ Yes, Yes it is GREAT to be an Auburn Tiger!!
Okay, this post TICKLED me! I had not noticed the capelet donned by Cam, but now I am totally intrigued by it. Also, your daydreaming of car keys reminds me of how we used to use old telephones, televisions, etc. to pretend we were secretaries. We looked SO cool and efficient as we answered phones, took messages, etc. Oh, it’s hard to imagine actually WISHING to be older. :-)
Maybe Cam’s dad will apologize to him publicly for being an embarrassment….and almost costing him his career……
I almost tweeted you about the capelet when he pulled it out.
And his motives were totally to get a sponsor. I mean, it’s CAM NEWTON.
As a Dawg from UGA married to a Tide fan, I will say about the win for Auburn, “Yay SEC! We ROCK!”
Oh, Girl! My kitchen is spotless with not a dirty dish in sight after that game!! AU-some! I did notice the capelet…WHAT was he thinking?? It is so great to be an Auburn Tiger!!!
So I wonder if those Oregon players had similar dreams ABOUT THOSE SOCKS? I’m sure there is some sort of unwritten law about football players and how their socks should never be yuck yellow. I thought my television had developed some coloring disorder.
Mississippi State + National Title = Hmmm?
We’ll have to see about that one! ha!
You sound, and please don’t take this the wrong way, JUST LIKE MY MOM (*yikes*) during an LSU football game. We were usually afraid we might get vacuumed accidentally, or folded away into a drawer, or paced over…
We just stayed out of her way on game day.I am happy to say the only game day trait I inherited was the hollering. I have no compulsion to clean. (Though I can’t say I ever have compulsions to clean, game or no game).
SO funny! Love the caplet look!
I had to read my husband the “hypothetical kicker” bit so we could both laugh about it. That is hilarious … and totally me. I often comment for days on end about how I wonder if this player or that has gotten over LOSING THE WHOLE GAME FOR HIS TEAM after he misses a field goal kick.
Good stuff Boomama. Good stuff!
SO wish I would have seen this last night. I was pacing and breathing deeply to stay in control. I’m a rabid Auburn fan via my son, the alum–four years of tuition payments will do that to you:). Love your comments about the kicker. I have long shared those thoughts. War Eagle and hooray for the SEC!
Boomama, or is it Boo Mama…I’m so glad I found your blog because it’s cracking me up! On the capelet thing, I have a very cynical Bammer friend who’s convinced Gatorade paid him untold thousands to wear that towel. Whatever. War Eagle, I say!
Oh that was funny. ALthough the game was sad, since I’m from Oregon. I can’t believe Auburn scored in literally the last second. It was an awesome game.
And re: the yellow socks…didn’t they look like they had duck feet? Ok they weren’t my favs, but they did stand out! At least it was interesting and nontraditional, and at least our mascots reflect our state.
As an Auburn alumna, I was oh-so-happy to see my school win the national championship. Especially considering that my first year at Auburn (92/93), our football games couldn’t even be televised because of a little scandal. Unfortunately, the funk of a new scandal is still in the air. So here’s to hoping that Auburn doesn’t get stripped of the title somehow.
The game was awesome in that it had all of the drama and uncertainty that one would expect in a championship game. As a matter of fact, it could have been too much drama for my poor little heart, so thank goodness that the Ducks provided much needed comic relief with their choice of foot coverings. Seriously, I couldn’t take my eyes off their feet. Was it just me? Do I have an unhealthy foot obsession? Because while my husband, father, and brother-in-law were all discussing game strategy, all I could think was, “Are those socks as bright in person as they are on TV? Are they part of some secret strategy to blind or distract the other team? Should there be regulations against brightly-colored uniforms? What were they thinking? Did a man design that ensemble? It must have been a man, because neon clothes are so 1980’s.”
We deserved to win based on fashion sense alone.
I experience the exact concern for field goal kickers. It doesn’t matter which team is in the predicament.
I too worry about the goal kicker. They are usually tiny compared to the other players and I just worry the other guys will pick on them. I know. And I’m not even a really big football fan.
I always word a letter (in my head) to the kicker in the event he misses. You know, telling him what a great player he is, its just one game, the team should have played better, etc.
I worry that my son is going to be a kicker and what will I do then? Pace at the ballgames? AAHH!!
Can you say…more money! I’m sure his dad is so proud!
Gatorade contract CHECK :)
OK, I am a big Auburn fan and to me, the game was anything but boring. Proud of my Tigers and proud of Cam. Whatever any says, he has handled all the negative press well. Wish we could keep him another year, but he would be crazy not to go pro. War Eagle and SEC is the best!
The capelet….OMG…that just makes me LAUGH OUT LOUD!
Being at the national championship game was one of the biggest thrills these two auburn fans will ever experience. ever. many words were used to describe the experience, but they just can’t quite capture the heart stopping thrill (and our hearts stopped plenty of times during that game!). like chizik said, there are words, but the words cheapen the experience. we’ve just never been so proud to be auburn tiger fans!! we’ll carry this feeling for a long, long time. war eagle, baby!