The Tuesday morning after the BCS title game this showed up on my twitter account:
Gone in 79 seconds – Hey #Auburn you gotta read this and @AUFamily spread the word – this is special! http://t.co/64ecvOxIoI via @usatoday
— Peter Zanetti (@Peter_Zanetti) January 8, 2014
I have not clicked the link. I have not read the article. I do not intend to do so either.
In the aftermath of the Rose Bowl BCS title game everything was simply too painful for me. There was no way I could listen to the post-game radio call. There was no way I could look up the game stats on ESPN Scorecenter. There was no way I could read the post-game write up on USA today. Mind you, this was not a technology limitation- I did posses a smartphone and my hotel room gave me a perfectly good copy of USA today Tuesday morning. However, I still could not, can not, and likely never will be able to go back there.
What follows are my thoughts from the game
On the game itself
I don’t need a stat sheet to tell me that Auburn likely out gained FSU by 50-100 yards. I also remember Jameis Winston getting sacked and hit multiple times (I’d guess 4 sacks and 10 total hits). Auburn was clearly the more dominant team, but they had those 21 points in ~20 minutes of football, and then suddenly no more for a long time. That’s where the game was lost. As well as the defense was playing, you can’t go scoreless for ~30 minutes and not expect your defense to continue to play at a high level.
I will admit, the final Auburn touchdown had me pretty excited, but the long pass play by FSU on their final drive had me sitting down in my chair. I could not bring myself to watch. Fortunately there are others who know the pain, this lady in front of me did the same thing.
On asking the other team to take your picture
Check out this pair. The FSU fan on the left asked the Auburn fan to his right to take his pic at the stadium and gave the Auburn fan his phone. The Auburn fan obliged, snapped a pic and then, um, dropped the phone while returning it to him. The result was a ridiculously cracked screen you can see in the post.
The wall of champions outside the Rose Bowl
At the front entrance of the Rose Bowl are a series of plaques depicting the Rose Bowl champions back to 1910 or so. All of them have gold lettering except one- the 2002 Rose Bowl which OU won. That game was also the first non-sellout for the Rose Bowl ever and the first non title game here that did not involve a Big10-PAC10 matchup. Coincidence? I doubt it.
The Goodyear blimp
During the whole game the Goodyear blimp circled overhead. Strangely, the only message that it could say said “check your tire pressure monthly”. Really? The national championship game? Do people really want to care about tire pressure at that time?
Scoreboard cover photo
I so very desperately wanted to take a scoreboard pic and use it as my FB cover photo for the next 365 days. Alas, this is as close as I came 
Sunrise in Pasadena
It was a beautiful day weather wise here. While Norman was 7° this morning with the wind chill of 0, we were warm and toasty in the mid-70s. The next morning we had our feet in the sand at the beach. Very hard to be in Norman Oklahoma when you know Pasadena is out there.