Win for Auburn!

My wife does all of the booking and planning for our trips. 

I’m not sure when this started happening, but anytime we go anywhere it just became the default that Miranda gets the plane tickets and the rental car, which also means she determines when we leave and when we come back home. For the most part, she’ll run that information by me so I can make it fit my work schedule. For Thanksgiving, I came up with a (for me, anyway) brilliant idea of bringing my work computer and work from her parent’s place before the holiday in order to maximize the time she got to spend with her family. The reward for this good deed is she booked the flight from Saturday to Saturday. Which means the first Saturday, I would have to be in the air while Auburn played Samford, a small school in Birmingham. No big deal.

But what this also meant is that I would have to be in the air for the second half of the Iron Bowl: Auburn. Versus. ALABAMA.

Crap!

For those of you who don’t know, Alabama and Auburn’s college football teams have a passionate rivalry that somehow has evolved into one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, rivalry in all of college football. There’s tons of history here, including Alabama flat out refusing to play in Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium until 1989 (!), but suffice it to say there isn’t much love lost between the two teams. Since I am an Auburn fan (and graduate!) I can be a bit of a homer and say Auburn often is the David to Alabama’s Goliath. Particularly recently, when Alabama has been on a nearly unprecedented successful run over the last several years. 

So here I am, having to figure out exactly how I was going to ingest the biggest game Auburn would have to play all year. Thankfully, technology is amazing. I started listening to the game via radio while I was at the in-laws’ place, then in the rental car until I had to give it up. I could have found a TV to watch but I decided it was best to not watch because I would NOT have been pulled away. In typical bad luck or Murphy’s law or whatever you want to call it, I may have missed one of the most exciting quarters in Iron Bowl history. Auburn put up TWENTY points. Alabama put up TWENTY EIGHT (!). The first half ended with Auburn’s kicker running onto the field and making an improbable 52 yard field goal to put Auburn down only 4 at the break. I was informed of all of this stuff via score updates and the many text threads that were popping up on my phone. I could have used my headphones at the terminal but I wanted to ensure they would last for the duration of my flight.

As an aside, I’m not a huge fan of flying. I could give any number of reasons for that but one that matters here is I like having an element of control. I hoped for a flight that wasn’t turbulent. I normally hope for this but this flight deserved some extra hope and prayer because I didn’t think I could handle having to deal with the turbulence of the flight AND turbulence of the football game. Goodness.

Fortunately, the flight was nearly turbulent free. But the game? Oh, the game! A nerve wracking, emotionally draining, back and forth affair that saw Auburn go ahead on an 11 yard touchdown run that was as brutally efficient as any you’d ever see. Alabama, of course, immediately drives down the field but Auburn’s defense stiffens, setting up Alabama for an easy 30 yard field goal to tie. And Alabama MISSED IT! 

Keep in mind, I’m on a plane and I cannot shout or jump up and down. My big butt is sitting in my window seat furiously pumping my fist in joy with Miranda looking (and clearly sensing my nervousness) like “what is going on?” I show her the score update and SHE gets nervous.

Alabama gets Auburn to a 4th down and 4. Alabama has no time outs and it’s about a minute left in the game. What happens next is insane. Auburn sends out a regular offense but sets the punter at wide receiver. Alabama’s punt returner had an amazing game against us so Auburn’s coach set us up in a traditional offense so Alabama would have to do one of two things: assume we would punt it and send in their special teams, risking a situation where they only have 10 personnel on defense (since the punter would be 40-45 yards away) or line up in a traditional defense which would mean they wouldn’t have a punter back to return the kick. Alabama, confused, lines up in a traditional defense but also send their punt returner to return a punt (!?!?!??!!!!!???!!!) YOU CAN’T DO THAT! LMAO! That’s 12 men on the field! The refs immediately throw a penalty flag of 5 yards, which gives Auburn a free first down. With no timeouts left, Alabama can’t stop the clock!

AUBURN WINS! AUBURN WINS! I am a complete puddle of goo on this plane but a very, very happy puddle of goo. I share my joy with Miranda. I text and tweet my fingers off. I am a very, very happy traveler! 

Takeaways here: always bet on David against Goliath, it’s just more fun. Make sure you check with your spouse for trip dates. It’s important. Make sure you have a radio app on your super fancy dancy cell phone. And oh yeah, War Eagle!