If you are fortunate enough to be friended by me on Face Book, you are undoubtedly aware of the great sacrifice I made on Saturday night at 7:30 pm. If you are not one of the chosen few, here is how it went down. In hopes of breaking the dreaded “streak” which began the same year I introduced myself to the Clark County public school system as a kindergartener, I made a major move. I decided to not watch the Kentucky v. Florida game live. I decided to leave my modest home for a place where there would not be a TV, radio, and I promised not to check my phone for the entirety of the contest. I did all of this for my beloved Wildcats, and for my wife, for whom I had purchased tickets to the Jason Aldean – Florida Georgia Line concert for Mother’s Day. Here is how it went down…
First, let me say, for all of you parents out there that raised your daughters to believe it is perfectly acceptable to wear nearly nothing to concerts… Bless you! I don’t have the best eyesight, so when I can tell you are not wearing much more than a pair of boots, you probably aren’t wearing much more than a pair of boots. You girls can’t all be groupies, so what are your “hopes” for the evening? And where were you about 10 years ago? I didn’t think my mind would be able to be distracted from the fact I was not watching the Cats, but… it was.
We saw some people we knew before the concert got started up and I could tell immediately, seeing the Pedigos out and about minutes before a Kentucky kickoff is a very surprising sight for many. It seemed very comparable to a Bigfoot sighting or seeing a Louisville fan without a line beard. People were actually shocked when they caught a glimpse of us strolling Rupp’s corridors. I must say, it was a very uncomfortable feeling for me too. I felt as naked as those girls lining up for fireball shots all over the damn place in their boots, and not much more than their boots.
Once we arrived to our seats, I got settled in a bit to my situation. I did very well as far as our tickets went. Floor seats, basically front row. There were only a few nearly nude girls standing between us and Jason Aldean occasionally. I knew going in that the Florida Georgia Line boys and Jason Aldean were all Georgia Bulldog fans, so I anticipated that they would probably give the score of the game, as long as it was good for the Cats. After FGL didn’t give the score during their set, I was a bit worried. Then, as expected, in his set, Aldean started talking about how his Bulldogs had just lost to SC, so, tonight, he was a Kentucky Wildcat fan, because he hates Florida. He then said, “Kentucky 10 Florida 6. 20,000 strong went nuts, and that number included yours truly. I was immediately on edge for the remainder of the show. I never checked my phone, I never grabbed the radio, but I really wanted to. My wife kept making comments about “staying in Lexington” and “What are we going to do afterwards” that made me think, she knows something, and it sounds good. Some might think she was giving me hints about something other than celebrating a Cats victory, but I know her fairly well, she wasn’t.
Before the show started, we ran into Coach Mitchell and his wife. It was a quick interaction, but as soon as the concert ended, the two of them were with us at our seats. I could no longer take it and grabbed the headphones to tune in Tommy Leach. I was losing my mind and the unknown was overwhelming! I tuned in just in time to hear, “Florida 23 Kentucky 20, and the Cats will have the ball”. I yelled out the score and probably ruined the plans of those around me who had DVRed the game and were going home to watch it, but I didn’t care. This might have been the case for Matthew Mitchell who was still standing beside me and I had totally forgotten that fact. I yelled the score at him, because the speakers we sat by had completely blown my ear drums out, that we were down 3 with the ball and he seemed as excited as I was!
My mom worked the concert with our friend JC, and they were going to give us a ride home. We hustled out the backstage to get to mom’s truck and more importantly, her radio. We got there in time to hear the Cats move the ball down the field into field goal range. We were surrounded by tour busses, trailers, and those nearly naked groupie gals wearing boots as we blasted the call in the Rupp lot. AS the first field goal attempt went through, only to be erased by a penalty, I screamed out “son of a b..ch!” and one of the groupie booted women thought I was yelling at her. It was intense back there BBN! When the 2nd attempt was in the air and I heard the Florida fans start to cheer in the background, I thought it was over, but… Leach said it was good and it was as much fun for a few moments as we have had with UK football for years! We drove through Lexington for all 3 overtimes, with my wife screaming out the window to random people until the battle was lost.
As crushed as I was Saturday night, I am that much more excited today about our Cats! I hope that all of BBN will join us on September 27 when our Cats return to do battle with Vanderbilt in our ol’ Kentucky home! Our Cats have shown how much fight they have in them, now let’s show them how much fight we have in BBN! Get there early, stay the ENTIRE game, no matter the score, and let’s celebrate together the greatness that is the Cats, girls in nothing but boots and the University of Kentucky football program! C! A! T! S!