Today was once again the annual spring football classic at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn Alabama. Much like the previous two years (see A-Day 2009 and A-Day 2010), it was a beautiful sunny spring day in the south, mid-80′s no clouds with a nice breeze, oh and with 50,000 or so fans sitting there watching us play… ourselves. Every year I asked myself the same question. Why am I here, and why are we all watching our own team play ourselves. Of course this was also the day that the Alabama Crimson Tide play themselves, and the Tennessee Volunteers play themselves, etc. etc., so I guess it was fate. This year I really didn’t hang around much other than to take some photos, my favorite being the Auburn cops behind bars (at the bottom). Actually my favorite shot doesn’t appear here because my wife said she would disown me if I posted a photo of the men’s room, so cops behind bars will have to do. It was wonderful to get outside today and not have to worry about cutting the grass or anything else, just a relaxing time people watching (there should be a social networking game for that with points scored for… maybe not).
Over the last year especially, every single time I go to an Auburn game I have to question my own motives, and can’t help but watch all the craziness that goes along with what is an Auburn football game, even if we are playing ourselves. We are about to start a new series called Counterfeit Gods right after Easter, which loosely correlates to the book by Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters, and I for one am glad (but in a way not) that we are doing this series in the spring and not during football season. The counterfeit gods of football are quite alive all over the south and for some reason the A-Day game always reminds me how important football is down here. Hard not to notice that when you can get over 100,000 people in two stadiums within two hours driving distance from each other. Still, it was an enjoyable afternoon in the tradition that is Auburn football that won’t be back again for about five months. War Eagle!
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So today was Auburn’s annual crazy day football game in the middle of Spring (A-day or Aday game) when everyone comes to see the new team and all that. The last few years it has been who can get more fans to a game in the middle of Spring while playing each other, Auburn or Alabama. I think this time Alabama gets the crazy award for having the most fans show up, and for ESPN to broadcast it they must get an additional crazy award themselves.
The highlight this year was not actually the football but the fact that we were able to get in to the new Basketball arena, the Auburn Arena as it is so called. This basketball season is one that many of us have been waiting for, for years, and this 2010-2011 season is set to open in a brand new $100 million (give or take) arena. Sorry the photos are so low-res, all I brought with me for some reason was my cell phone. The last photo of the construction area is still my favorite so far this year.
It was still really great to get to see the new arena in person. Can’t wait for the first basketball game.
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This past Saturday we went to the annual A-Day game here in Auburn. For those unfamiliar with what we (and Bama folks) call an A-Day game, it is when between 40,000-90,000 people come to their respective stadium to see their team play each other. More like a glorified open Spring practice, but one because it is Auburn or Alabama football is made into an event.
We here in Auburn had about 45,000 people show up (Alabama who had their game televised on ESPN had about 90,000) this year. It was good to see the new offense throw down the field and although you really needed a PhD to understand the scoring it was fun to watch. Here are some photos from the day including one of Deb’s sunglasses (I also love the shot of the security guards in the upper deck, what a job).
