“Being perfect is not about that scoreboard out there. It's not about winning. It's about you and your relationship with yourself, your family and your friends. Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didn’t let them down because you told them the truth. And that truth is you did everything you could. There wasn’t one more thing you could've done. Can you live in that moment as best you can, with clear eyes, and love in your heart, with joy in your heart? If you can do that gentleman - you're perfect!” – Billy Bob Thornton as Coach Gary Gaines in “Friday Night Lights”
It’s one thing to watch football on TV, but it’s a totally different experience in the arena. If you think about movies like Any Given Sunday and Friday Night Lights, they try (and do a decent job I might add) about capturing the electricity in the air at football games. This weekend I truly felt that electricity in the “Swamp” of Gainesville, Florida this weekend. I got the opportunity to travel down to Gainesville with a friend of mine, her mother and her son. Her brother plays for the Vanderbilt Commodores, the visiting team. Fortunately, we were all sitting together cheering for the ‘Dores… I honestly didn’t think that Vandy had a shot in hell to stay in the game, but at halftime the score was tied at 14. Vanderbilt overcame 2 turnovers that the Gators turned into 14 points to tie the game at regulation, and forced overtime. In the second overtime, Vandy lost with an interception, ending the game with a score of 49-42. By far this was one of the best games that I have seen in person, but it was truly heartbreaking for the game to end the way it did. What I saw next is the part that you don’t get to see on TV – and it never will.
All of the Vanderbilt fans and family members waited for the players to come out from the locker room to congratulate them. Watching younger siblings hugging their older brother, the mothers hugging ALL of the players as they came out – all kinds of emotion that I simply do not have the vocabulary to express to all of you. I tried to avoid saying how touched I was by the scene, but that's exactly how I felt - touched. These players left their hearts out on the field, and it showed in the majority of the team's demeanor while heading to the buses. When I got back to Atlanta, I was so exausted that I slept from 8:00 pm to 5:30 the next morning. How my friend and her family traveled to those games week in and week out for four years is absolutely beyond me. The physical and emotional energy around that place is intoxicating when you have a vested interest in the team. I don't think that I have cheered that hard for the Falcons in the past. Even thought the outcome of the game wasn’t perfect, my weekend couldn’t have been closer to that word in quite some time. Thanks go out to my friend and her family for inviting me this weekend!
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