Deer Clemson Football

Dec 20, 2020, 8:49 AM

On March 11th, I stopped by the Dollar General in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee on my way home from a 12-hour shift. My wife texted me earlier that afternoon that school for our kids was suspended due to the Coronavirus. I was asked to pick up diapers for our youngest and a few ham and cheese Lunchables to tide over their tummies while out of school.

I was confused as to why Dollar General was full, first of all, but more confused why everyone had towers of toilet paper in those tiny little buggies. I called my wife and simply asked, “What the (fluff) is going on?”

It was not until I hopped back in the Tahoe and turned on our local ESPN radio, I heard the news for the first time. Some tall light-skin French dude touched a bunch of microphones in jest, unknowingly infecting a teammate with the Coronavirus and almost single-handedly shutting down the NBA. “It’s only March 11th. It’ll be under control by football season.”

March 12th and the news of the NCAA tournament being canceled worried me more. I cannot remember how many times I counted on my fingers, “April, May, June, July, August, September. Six months. It’ll be under control and we’ll see Trevor and ETN light up the World.”

Garth Brooks concerts canceled. Starbucks closes early with drive-thru only. Say goodbye to a good gut buster because the Chinese Buffet closed up shop permanently. My plant laid off all hourly workers and put us salary personnel at 70% of our pay for three months.

I would have taken 70% for the entire year if I had my Clemson football.

We all have our pandemic story. How it affected your jobs, your relationships, what food or essential you ran out of, whether or not you believe the mask-hype, and even who you had to say goodbye to.

I do not know who gave us Clemson football. It might have been Trevor and Darien. I doubt it was Donald. It was probably people with money who wanted more money. I will take it no matter how it was sliced.

When I moved outside of South Carolina - initially to what is now Pat Mahomes’ country and now to Tennessee - Clemson football is what made me feel most at home. In the past handful of years since moving out of state, I’ve watched every play of every game, even the blowouts, even the Will Swinney receptions. I did miss some of the Friday Syracuse/Kelly Bryant loss because I worked late, and I am convinced that’s why they lost.

Hell, I just drove from the Chattanooga area to Laurens in 3 and half hours to visit my mom for Christmas. It was not because of the whiny kids spilling juice in the floorboards of my ride that I drove this fast. it was because I was afraid I would miss a few snaps of the ACC Championship game. “If I can just make it over the lake and into South Carolina, I probably have a 50% chance the officer will understand why I am driving this fast and maybe even escort me. There’s also a 50% chance, he’ll make me pay $200 bucks and send me off with, ‘I hope you lose, Tater!’” I pulled into Mama’s driveway at 3:57pm yesterday afternoon, hugged her and scrambled to remember which channel ABC was.

I watched you all season. I saw Etienne’s ups and downs. I saw Xavier show glimpses. I saw Injury after injury. I saw Cornell emerge. Amari is special and the best 5’10 receiver in college. I saw our future in DJ and in Myles and Bresee and Trenton Simpson. Mostly, I saw the doubts from everyone around me. “O-line sucks, Elliot needs fired, Dabo has lost them, DK is awful, Nolan can’t cover.”

I got concerned myself mid-season.

Then I watched you last night. DK was amazing. He allowed one catch and he was in zone. He got a sack. O-line fantastic. The same one O-line that was “terrible.” Elliot tremendous. Tyler Davis will be the best DT in college next year if he’s not already. So proud of Amari and Etienne. Sealskin (Skalski-autocorrect, but interesting so left it in) is baaaack. Trevor looked so fast. Why did everyone look so fast? KJ stepped up. The secondary was special with a rotation of a ton of players and to maintain such consistency. The effort was UNREAL. I let out a Tim the Toolman Taylor growl x 10 when ETN ran over that kicker. I still remember some scrub posted about ETN on TigerNet when he was tackled by the punter. Ian Book potentially needs anti-depressants after this one. Brian Kelly just ran into a buzz-saw.

I do not know if we will win a National Championship. If we play the way we played last night, the Jets themselves would have a hard time competing. Whatever happened, keep it up. Championship phase in full affect. This is a major part of my holidays and I could not be more excited and proud of what transpired, especially preventing an ACC Championship going to an ND team who only joined for selfish reasons.

No team wants to play you. Not Day. Not Saban. Certainly not Jimbo or Kelly.

I fell asleep on the couch after the second play of the Alabama/Florida game because I simply did not give a fluff. Spot the ball. We’ll play anyone.

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Deer Clemson Football

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Really enjoyed your post. +1***

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