Varsity [244]
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Posts: 65
Joined: 12/2/01
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What it means to be a Clemson Tiger Family
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[6]
Jan 12, 2017, 9:42 AM
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From Brian Floyd
I'm glad I have my dad and my brothers to share this moment with. We're not the sentimental types, but love for Clemson football is something my dad taught us and we have always been able to passionately share no matter where we are in the world.
As a freshman at The Citadel my dad got AIM (that's right) so we could secretly talk about the Tigers every week which literally got me through my Knob year.
I remember talking to him the night before 9/11 my sophomore year about our game the last weekend and the one coming up next.
When I was in Iraq he bought a DVD player to record the games and would mail them to me to watch on a dusty laptop hooked up to a generator over a week after they were played.
My brother lives in Thailand and we have gotten to connect every week to text each other during the games.
We suffered during the early pre-2003 Bowden Bowls together. We felt the highs and lows of the BC games vs Matt Ryan and the NCSU games vs Phillip Rivers, and the Ron Cherry's and the "Clemson'ing".
We experienced the huge wins against FSU, Tennessee, Auburn, Ohio State, LSU, Oklahoma, Miami, and the list goes on. We got to witness some of the greatest plays in team history, and some of the most devastating.
We stayed classy when beating our rivals 63-17 and took our lumps when we lost 5 straight. We have refreshed our web pages repeatedly on national signing day and followed recruits since they were 15 years old. And during it all, I've never bought another article of clothing with any other team's logo on it.
I have never had "my other team...". The Clemson Tigers have been our champions every year I've been alive and we've waited for this since I was born (literally...I was born 3.5 months after the last national championship). Anyone who has ever met us knows who our team is, was, and always will be.
I used to hate bandwagon fans, but now I truly pity them because they'll never know what it's like to be this invested in a program as a fan and then to finally experience not just a national championship, but one that was earned and one like this one, and to have it won by a classy program that I would feel good about turning my son over to one day.
I think Cubs fans would agree, it's not just winning a championship that means a lot. It's compounded greatly by the time, loyalty, drought, heartbreak, pain, and love put into seeing it through.
A lot of you die hard fans out there know what I'm talking about, and whoever your team is I hope you get to experience this one day and it means to you what it means to me.
Locke Floyd Mike Floyd Paul Floyd
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