Armchair quarterbacking is just one of the many perks of being a sports fan these days. And one of the great questions that we armchair QBs ask is–“what if?”
In today’s Tennessean, sports-writer Paul Kuharksy takes a look at some “what if” moments related to five of the bigger stories in Nashville sports history in the past couple of years. Two of them, I care about passionately–the Music City Miracle and Clint Sterner’s fumble in the UT/Arkansas game. Both of these moments are ones that I will always remember where I was and what I was doing. As a fan of both teams, these are those miracle type of moments that make you glad you’re a fan. First of all, the Music City Miracle–I think it goes without saying that Mike Keith’s call on Titans radio for this one goes hand in hand in with play. Hearing Keith (who I think is the best play by play guy in the NFL) call this one is magical. I was not in Tennessee at the time–I was visiting the parental units in Texas–and only saw the game on ABC. But thankfully, they and ESPN used the Keith call for it and I used to have a .wav of it downloaded on my PC to listen to every once in a while. Keith and fellow broadcast, Pat Ryan, really make this one come alive–from the stunned shock at what’s going on, to the awe that it’s take place to the sheer joy that it worked as we won. How can you forget Ryan saying, “I think they’ve got something!’ and Keith saying, “THERE ARE NO FLAGS ON THE FIELD!” and going nuts proclaiming it a miracle. It still gives me goose-bumps just thinking about it. ESPN recently counted this as moment number 48 from the past 25 years. Sorry, guys…you missed the boat. This one is top five. (I also know some people in Buffalo who to this day argue it was a forward lateral and call the play something else…all I can say is–get over it! We did it, we won and we went to the Super Bowl!)
The next one is the one play that one UT a national championship and we had little to do with it. I vividly remember that Susan and Brian had tickets to the game, it was pouring rain and I almost got to go. I remember watching the whole game, just feeling sick to my stomach at how we’d acheived the number one ranking and were playing so poorly. My parents were stationed in Hawaii and we’d call each other after each game and either celebrate or lament. I remember us punting and sitting in my little apartment on Ferd Hickey Rd stunned, upset and ticked off. How could this happen? I finally had worked up the energy to pick up the phone and call my parents to lament–when it happened. Storner goes back, fumbles the ball and we pounce on it. I drop the phone. I am literally on my hands and knees watching as Travis Henry comes in and pounds the ball down, yard after yard, closer and closer. Finally, he breaks the goal line, I jump and erupt “Touchdown Tennessee!” I proceed to do this after each replay and dance around with joy. At that moment, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt we’d win it all…every championship run has to have a little luck and we just got ours.
Moments like those are why it’s great to be a sports fan.
Orange Tinted Glasses 