Another year of successful Stanford football is in the books!

Yesterday the guys and I packed the supplies, met at our usual rendezvous point and then caravanned on up to “The Farm” (a.k.a. Stanford Stadium) for our annual event.  I’m not sure exactly how many years I have been personally attending but it’s quite a few (between 6-7 is my guess) and overall this group, or various renditions of the group, have been attending for even longer.

Each year brings its own unique, as well as, unexpected surprises.  One thing for certain is that we seem to always create fond memories.  It’s really a wonderful time where we get together once per year to attend a Stanford football home game.  The game itself is somewhat of an after-thought (although we do pay attention and follow the game) because the highlight is always the pre-game tailgate.

The tailgate event is exactly what you might expect where we eat, drink and talk smack, eerrr I mean ‘debate’, such topics as sports, movies/TV shows, politics and generally catch-up on everyone’s lives.  So let me detail some of this year’s tailgate highlights with the understanding that my website is a PG-13 rated site so I have to withhold some of the best details.

The Food

The assortment of delicious eats at our annual Stanford games never disappoints.  Bob, our fearless leader/organizer, and his father, Chuck (a.k.a. “Chilli King”) always do an outstanding job to get the right mixture of traditional foods, as well as introduce new varieties of items yearly.  For the traditional part of this Smörgåsbord, Bob brings a heated crock-pot of scrumptious franks and sauerkraut.  This year he also surprised us with a homemade jar of pickles canned from his personal garden.  I had every intention of trying one, or two, but I got a little ‘chatty’ and forgot so I’ll have to get a jar next time I see him.

Another great food tradition is Chuck’s infamous chilli!  He makes a great big pot of chilli which is always well-received among the tailgaters.  And while there is always a wide assortment of toppings for the chilli, I generally leave my bowl rather basic with maybe a dollop of sour cream and a little cheese so that I can enjoy the true flavor of the spicy greatness.

For my contribution to the feast I get to, fortunately, take all the credit for Brandee’s love of cooking and baking.  In the weeks leading up to our gathering Brandee and Bob decide upon some dish to bring.  This year’s choice was a variety of chip and cookie dips.  She created four flavors including Pumpkin-Pie Cookie Dip with homemade Scottish Shortbread, Brandee’s personal ‘Camping’ Dip, Garden Salsa and French Onion Dip.  Additional food gluttony this year included bbq ribs, several bags of chips, grapes and a 3 foot ToGo’s sandwich (thanks Dave!).

The chatty

This year’s event was a bit unusual in that our tailgate was an extended affair.  Typically the game is in the afternoon so we tailgate for an hour or two; however this year’s game started at night so we had four solid hours of fun festivities and, therefore, the discussions were wide-ranging on topics and quality in nature.  There were a total of eight of us that attended this game so some of discussions were group discussions and sometimes we would split off into separate discussions.  A particularly special discussion revolved around the TV series Breaking Bad and our various opinions of the characters and the plot/story line.  Some of the ‘gaters hadn’t seen the series and couldn’t appreciate the details of our chat but since I had just recently finished watching the entire series, I was emotionally involved in the discussion without revealing too many specifics so that those others can enjoy the drama themselves should they choose to experience it for themselves sometime in the future.

Naturally some of our chat arrived on the topic of the current Government Shutdown and I’ll just say that we were fairly passionate without going into other details.  Other noteworthy topics included (as you might expect with a group of eight dudes) fantasy football, the proper techniques of a golf swing and the typical pointing fun-of-each-other type nonsense.

The game

Oh yes, as I mentioned in my opening we do sort-of pay attention to the game itself after all the great food and chatty.  Some of the games of the past have been memories and others, well, just weren’t.  This year was absolutely one for the ages.  The game matched Stanford who was highly ranked at #5 in the nation against the Washington Huskies who were also highly ranked at #18 in the nation.  So for the first time in a long time, this game mattered and to add even more drama, both teams came in with 4 wins and 0 lose records!  Additionally, they are matched in the same division so you can see that this was a very important game for both teams.

Our seats were excellent – literally right on the 50-yard line.  This way we could enjoy the action no matter which side of the field the ball happened to be.  The game itself was ‘weird’ in my opinion.  I’m still struggling to come-to-grips with the eventual outcome and how it came to be.  Let me explain.  You see, this was a game like I’ve never seen of ‘big plays’ making the difference.  It’s so cliché to say such a thing but ‘big plays’ ultimately really did decide the end result.  Let me present some of the final statistics from the game and choose for yourself who you think would have won?

Looking at those numbers you would think that Washington would have been a clear winner.  Wrong.  Stanford won the game 31-28.  Again, big plays were the difference.  Stanford returned the opening kick-off for a touchdown.  Stanford also forced a key interception late in the game with the ball deep in their own territory as Washington was just about to score.  While the Stanford defense gave up a lot of yards, they didn’t give up too many points and they came through when it counted most tadalafil generique.

For the game summary, I just attribute this to two quality teams playing a tough game.  Special teams play made a big difference but this was not a sloppy game by any means.  The play was crisp and quite professional.  I was impressed with how good each team is.  They are both worthy of their high national rankings and it should be interesting to see how they end-up at season end.

Event Summary

In the end, this was another spectacular event and I want to thank Bob and Chuck, again, for including me.  It is always such a pleasure to get together with good people.  The annual Stanford football gathering is an event that is a yearly highlight which I have gone to great lengths not to miss (if at all humanly possible).

My love for this event is evidenced by one year in which I was just returning from a two-week business trip both domestically in the U.S., as well as a week in Japan where I landed at 10am and was at the tailgate by noon!  I was literally a walking-zombie from lack-of-sleep and jet-lag but there was no way I was going to miss this event.

I’m already counting down the days to next year where, once again, we can hear Bob’s infamous call of “FIRST DOWN!  STANFERD!!!”