I take it back. Sports are generally lame. No, no! Okay. I’ll just put this into the “extended entry” field.
I will come out of my not-so-into sports shell to comment that this game was spectacularly cool for the Cougars. I looked at technorati.com for a recent blog post on BYU and found this Emily, whom MySpace informs me is in my “Extended Network.” (whatever .. according to MySpace the whole world is my extended network.. and yes, this is a confession that I am friendless and alone, being without MySpace.. and do I really want anybody in my extended network? Couldn’t we just “be friends”?) Anyway, I might admire her weeping for joy, though I don’t share it, but I do share her enthusiasm.
I only caught the last minutes of this game – I was heading out to my brother-in-law’s to watch the game when I put on music for my son and danced with him and he fell asleep on my shoulder (I love this. I miss how frequently it happened in his early infancy). So he napped and we didn’t turn on the game, and Tia napped while I worked on some journal stuff, then we drove out later and got to their house as they watched the last minutes of the game. Cougars down by .. see this is where my non-sportsiness comes in. Down by.. um.. a few points. Need a touchdown to win. Less than a minute remaining in the game and the Utes just had a drive that put them at the top.
BYU steadily drives up the field, closer to the End Zone. Time narrows. Down to ten seconds left.. BYU driving maybe ten yards from the end zone. Third down? I lost track. They run a pass play, bounced out of the reciever’s hand in the end zone. (I thought the defender really messed with his arms and there should have been a “Pass Interference” call. There wasn’t). Three seconds left. One last shot at it. They form up to run the last play. I’m frozen, telling myself “They are going to do it. They are going to do it. They are going to do it.” On hike all the receivers go out, the quarterback (Beck) running back and to the right as the defensive line scrambles on him. The clock is out. This play is the game. Long moments scrambling right and further back as he looks for receivers with the defense closing in on him. He fires cross-field to the left. PASS COMPLETE. The reciever falls to his knees and then gets up and raises his arms. TOUCHDOWN. COUGARS WIN.
I went nuts when I saw this. And while my family was also going nuts, and even though I had been telling myself BYU was going to do it, I was in disbelief for ten minutes.
Wow.
Burt Monroe, the world record motorcycle land speed breaker, when he first made it out to the Salt Flats in Utah to drive for a record, said he felt he was standing on holy ground; where so many speed records have been broken again and again: that man striving for his best is a holy thing. When I see glimpses of brilliance like the end of this game was, I agree.
(But only when we win. Okay not really.)