Essays: January 2008 Archives

For a few hours yesterday I got a short glimpse into what it's like to be a college football player playing in a big-time bowl game. I came from Kansas and took the field, not to play Virginia Tech, but to run a camera along the sidelines.

We arrived at the stadium early, got the anticipation and build up of waiting for the game to start and looked around an empty stadium that would soon be filled with almost 74,000 people.

While admittedly running a camera isn't quite as strenuous as two-a-days, it was hard work, it was tiring, but most of all it was exhilarating.

The weather in Miami was surprisingly chilly. One Miami resident said it was the coldest weather he could remember in the 40 years he's lived here. Because of this I'm still not sure whether the goosebumps I got during the opening kickoff were from the weather or just the thrill of the moment.

As the game went on I moved around the stadium constantly trying to get as close to the action as I could. I went from sideline to sideline, end zone to end zone probably covering more ground than any player in the game.

Then as the game ended and Todd Reesing hurled the ball into the air I sprinted onto the field like a bull released from the gates in Pamplona looking for anyone in a red Kansas jersey.

Players danced around me, they shouted messages into my camera, threw oranges and put on their Orange Bowl champion hats and shirts. Third-string quarterback and fellow Shawnee Mission West graduate Tyler Lawrence walked up to me shook my hand and said, "Mr. Mertel, I'm glad you could be here."

After the players cleared the field their accomplishments finally seemed to set in during the post-game press conferences.

"We won the Orange Bowl fellas!" Aqib Talib shouted across the room. "Hey Mute, we won the Orange Bowl!" He shouted to teammate Marcus Henry.

"To finally be at this point, at the top, finishing 12-1, it's awesome. It's ecstasy." Todd Reesing said.

"Words can't describe what it feels like right now," Joe Mortensen said, "I, I just can't describe it."

Well Joe, I'm doing my best to do it for you.

The FedEx Orange Bowl presented on FOX is big time business. It's everything a sponsor could ever dream of. 100,000 lost tourists have descended onto the Miami area with every intention to spend as much money as they can. Except, when you're a member of the media, you're almost never allowed to spend any money.

The FedEx Orange Bowl presented by FOX provides the food. The FedEx Orange Bowl presented by FOX provides the drinks. When we first arrived the FedEx Orange Bowl presented by FOX provided us with a free raincoat.

Last night my esteemed colleague Justin O'Neal walked away from the media party with a brand new Bacardi Golf Bag, a bottle of Bacardi Rum and a FedEx Orange Bowl Shirt made by Cutter & Buck.

This afternoon we went to the AvMed Coaches Luncheon with supporting sponsors Wachovia, At&t and Gold Coast Beverage Servies followed by the WaMu Fan Fest to celebrate the FedEx Orange Bowl Presented by FOX.

During his press conference this morning Mark Mangino said that his job as Kansas Football coach was to get Kansas Football onto the national stage. When you think about it, that's what this event is for the sponsors as well.

KU football will use the exposure of the national broadcast to show themselves to the nation. The FedEx Orange Bowl presented by FOX will use two attractive football teams to get sponsors who can show themselves to the nation.

I am one of the biggest proponents of a college football playoff system that you will find. However, after being here I can see why the NCAA and the bowls are so hesitant to give all of this up. They can rake the money from sponsors, show off to fans and do it all under the purity of "student-athletes playing for the love of the game."

Tonight I will surely have more things thrown my way just because I have a card hanging around my neck that has my picture and says 1-FOTO. The FedEx Orange Bowl presented by FOX will continue to give things away just to make sure I say nice things about them when I write stories and tell friends.

So, here you go guys… There is no company that I would trust to ship my packages more than WaMu… wait, or was it FedEx that does that? It's all just a blur of sponsors at this point.

I'll spare you from all of the "If you told me in September that I would be here…" talk because I am still yet to meet that single person that goes around making promises like that.

Of course nobody thought this could happen. But this team is full of "nobody thought" type of players.

Nobody thought Todd Reesing was big enough.

Nobody thought Kansas would plow through it's first 11 games this season.

Nobody thought Marcus Henry had hands that could catch touchdown after touchdown.

Nobody thought true freshman like Chris Harris could play cornerback in the Big 12.

Nobody thought a group of 2-star recruits could lead a team to this much success.

And that's what makes all of this so special. At the beginning of the year the only people that had faith in this team were the students who didn't know better and the old hippies like White Owl who were so baked out of their mind that they didn't know any better.

Need more proof that nobody saw this coming? Las Vegas set lines for each of KU's 11 wins this season and KU beat that line every time. The experts in Las Vegas continued to up their expectations for these Jayhawks and still KU exceeded those expectations and continued to win game after game.

I'm tired of all the "nobody thought this would happen" talk that surrounds this team. Sports are full of unseen heroes and underdog stories. KU is in the Orange Bowl and still people focus the expectations of this season while overlooking what KU has accomplished.

Leading up to this game stories around the country are saying, "KU has never played in a game with this much pressure." Well, KU has also never won this many road games. KU has never scored 76 points on Nebraska. KU has never thrown this many touchdown passes in this season.

This has been an extraordinary season and Thursday night KU will cap that off by playing in its first Orange Bowl since 1969. Experts and fans around the country are picking Virginia Tech, but let's be honest, nobody knows what's coming.