Touchdown Jesus

Touchdown Jesus, looming over ND Stadium. And in Arizona too?

So I was offered the chance to spend a weekend hanging out with friends, watching a ton of football, gambling, betting, and partying.  Sounds like another epic Vegas weekend, right?  Well it was epic but not in Las Vegas, this time it was even better as I was at a secret mountain lair in Northern Arizona with the absolute ultimate man cave.  I mean, I certainly wasn't going to Portland.

To fully appreciate this story, we have start in late January of this year when I first met my friend, Doug Hatfield.  It may have been the absolute lowest point of my life, I was just recently divorced, after a long and painful process through the court systems of Wisconsin(I will forever hate all things WI, screw the Badgers and the Packers and cheese, well on second thought I still like cheese I guess but going forward I'll eat California cheese only), I was alone, still fairly new to Scottsdale, my days consisted of waking up and running many, many miles, going to work and then either walking many more miles or working out at Orange.  Needless to say it was not a great time, nor was I in great spirits and I certainly wasn't at my most personable.  Knowing that I was in need of some type of change, whatever it may be, I decided to go to a men's group breakfast at my church, St. Patrick's in Scottsdale.  Not being overly religious, I attend mass on Sunday's but that's about it, I never would have done anything like this breakfast before, but for whatever the reasons I felt like maybe I needed to go.  So that Saturday morning I went and the first person I met was Doug.  We hit it off immediately, as he is from the Midwest(South Bend, IN) loves football and sports and we seemed to have a lot in common.  After the breakfast we went our separate ways, didn't share our contact info or anything, just went on with life, we are men after all and we are not always great at these things.  About 2 months later it was the weekend of my birthday.  I had done the Phoenix Marathon a few weeks earlier and if you read my blog then you know that didn't go as expected, coupled with everything else going on in my life, things were still personally challenging.  Then I saw that St. Pat's was going to have another Men's group breakfast on Saturday, so I thought maybe I should go again.  I mean it was my birthday weekend and I realized it was literally going to be the first time in my life that I would spend my birthday alone.  Not that I ever have made a big deal about my birthday but I guess everything was compounding for me and I was feeling very down.  So I went to the breakfast again and the first person I saw was Doug.  We instantly reconnected as though we'd been friends forever.  It was very cool and after the breakfast Doug said that his family was in town and asked me to join them for dinner on Sunday, my actual birthday, of course he had no way of knowing that.  So I gladly accepted the offer and the next day I met he and his wife, Kristin and his dad and younger brother at Zipp's Sports bar in Scottsdale where we watched NCAA tourney games and had a great time together.  I'm not sure even to this day if I ever told Doug that it was my birthday that day, but I know I'll never forget that when I may have been at my absolute lowest, he and Kristin invited me into their life without any hesitation and it actually turned out to be about the best way I could have spent my birthday and also the real start of a new chapter in my life.  After that day all sorts of things started changing for me, all for the better.  I joined a Friday men's group through the church, with Doug and about 6 other guys and it suddenly seemed liked everything was getting better in my life. I'd met new friends, had a better outlook and just felt happier.  So recently I got to thinking as to why this happened this way; was it just random luck, timing, coincidence, God's doing, was it because I finally made myself open to changing, why didn't we exchange our contact info the first time, and what if my last name had been McCoy would Doug have shot me instead?  Well, whatever the reasons, ever since that day Doug and I have become fast friends, as though we've known each other for years.  Sometimes I guess its better to just accept the way things happen and there is truly no need to analyze them.

Arizona Beauty, mountains, fountains and sunshine.

 Only a few months later I had the job opportunity in Seattle in front of me and it was no easy decision to leave Scottsdale behind and the friends I had just gotten to know to move to a whole new city to start over again.  But the opportunity was too much to pass up and I packed my stuff and left, but not before Doug said to me, "Buddy, go to Seattle, we'll be friends no matter what and besides I'll just give you an excuse to come back to Scottsdale someday".  When I got to Washington I certainly wasn't sure that we'd be able to really stay close friends.  Being 2000 miles away, Doug's work schedule has him travelling literally 100% of the time, all of my new job/life changes, but it was never an issue.  With email and cell phones and such I'm not sure a week has gone by that Doug and I haven't connected one way or another.  We soon realized how much more we had in common, we both love Guns and Roses, like to run, views on life and politics and one ultimate thing, a hatred of scUM.  Not many people can understand that but when you grow up in the Midwest, it just happens.  We could both be mature adults now and move past it, but why not embrace it?!?!  Some could construe that as childish, unhealthy, stupid and guess what, I agree, but it's much more fun this way.  So don't you think it might have been strategic that I planned to head back to Arizona to hang with Doug during the football season?  So despite an atypically awesome October in Seattle I headed down to my old home state of Arizona to have some fun. 

Pure blue sky, bright sun; must be in Arizona!

The weather has been fantastic in Seattle this year and even late this fall, until I stepped off the plane in Phoenix.  There is no more blue sky, bright sun and perfect temps with no humidity than an Arizona fall.  Quickly my thoughts of Seattle subsided.  Sigh.  Doug and Kristin picked me up and we headed out to a sports bar to take in the the Thursday night game and meet up with another friend from St. Pat's, Sammy.  We had a great time and the results of the game were profitable.  Friday morning we headed up north to the secret man cave in the sky.  I will not reveal the location, maybe it was because I was blindfolded on the way up or maybe it's because if the location was actually known it would become too frequently visited, thus it would lose its mystique. So lets just say we headed north into the mountains.  At this point I should mention that purely, hypothetically speaking, sometimes people could conceivably place a bet, or 100, on football games.  If you've read my blog, you know I have a fountain of absolutely useless knowledge pertaining to football and that many times in Vegas I have made any number of bets, testing said knowledge.  Well here in remote Northern Arizona there are no casinos to make such bets, but sometimes these things are possible in....other ways.  So let's just pretend that maybe, there was some juice on the games including last nights, tonight's and all day Saturday.  Maybe one other thing Doug and I have in common.  Hypothetically speaking.  Well the Friday night game, UCF +13 at Louisville was too ripe for the pickings and a bet, or should I say, if one made a bet on UCF they may have done well.  So Friday was good but lets face it, Saturday was the main event, 50+ games of action,  a man cave filled with TVs , a kegerator, full bar, shuffleboard table, pool table and any number of other sports related accoutrement much of it related to Doug's Holy Trinity: Notre Dame, the Detroit Red Wings and Miller Lite.  Trust me, any one would be blown away with this setup.

Mogollon Rim on the way up to the Lair.

We'll make this quick and just say that watching that many games, and potentially having action on many of them, makes for quite an experience. However, it was a GREAT day, in any number of ways.  We saw Notre Dame beat USC, albeit in ugly fashion, MSU win, in even uglier fashion, and Texas State take down Georgia State.  Wait, who? Why?  Well if  one was to want to bet on games, the opponents don't matter and let's just say Texas State did what they were supposed to.  Which brings me to a great story.  Every Saturday you can usually find me at home watching a ton of football on my own.  Doug is often in South Bend or elsewhere at a game, if not watching and regularly we speak on Saturdays during the games about what's taking place that day and recently he called me from the stadium during halftime of the Notre Dame game and we had the following exchange:

Doug:  Buddy I'm in the stadium and I'm having a hard time getting some scores.

Me:  What do you need?

Doug:  FIU-UAB

Me:  (pausing) You know some people might say it's a problem when one is betting on Florida International and University of Alabama-Birmingham.  I mean there are probably 100 people in this world that even know that game is going on.  Then again, I'm not sure what's worse that a bet was made on this game or that of all the people in the world you knew that you could call me and I would know the answer.  Hmmmm.  Let's move on.  By the way, UAB covered.

Doug:  Cool. Thanks.

So imagine that times 100 on Saturday.  A gambler's dream.  Hypothetically speaking of course.  Although I should also relay that Kristin may be the most patient woman in the world to put up with all of this and now I was here actually fueling the fire.  At one point Doug ask me an innocuous question about which UCF players made it in the NFL.  As I immediately rattled off a myriad of names and all their stats/info I saw Kristin look at me with a look that purely let me know how disturbed an individual I am that I would know such useless info so effortlessly.  I found it all hilarious, I am who I am, good or bad I guess.   But then again, she taught elementary school kids for nearly 20 years, so she's used to dealing with childish and strange behavior.  Thanks for putting up with me Kristin!

Doug, Kristin, Sammy and me having fun in Fountain Hills.

It was a fun Saturday ending with a number of people coming over that night, because any time you are at the Hatfield's a party eventually ensues.  Florida State blew out Clemson, UNLV covered vs. Fresno State and Utah-Arizona fell the right way too, if you were into that kind of thing.  $$$  But what's with all this bonding over football and gambling?  Well I have given it some thought and I have a theory that God created football so that men could actually talk to each other.  Bear with me.  Yes, we watched a ton of football and in many people's eyes that could be a waste of time, but we not only enjoyed it, interspersed between the action we actually talk about personal things.  Maybe not in the way woman would like us to, but for men, it works for us.  So whatever works right?  I mean Doug knows about as much about me as anyone and most of that came about by watching some kind of game and mixing it in.  It's easier, more comfortable that way so why analyze it any more than that.  It's why when I was on a date recently(a Saturday mind you!) Doug called me, as he usually does, again from the Notre Dame game and I put him on the phone with my date, let's keep her anonymity(she may be mortified if she reads any of this) and call her the Chippette, I know Doug and he told her all sorts of great things about me and he only knew that from us hanging out and not necessarily talking in that sense but watching sports and man talking.  But I trusted him and it seemed to work.  As for why I answered the phone on a date, let me say that I alerted the Chippette ahead of time that I would likely be getting a call and if I didn't take it, my phone may not stop ringing and besides I knew Doug would talk to her and help me out because let's face it, the women aren't exactly lining up for an over 40, divorced, broken and flawed man obsessed with football and morbidly obsessed with running; I need all the help I can get. 

Back to the weekend.  Sunday morning we headed back down to the Valley, got in a good run and went to mass at St. Pat's  and I saw a few other friends as well and then we went out to a sports bar and I  met up with another friend of mine, Gregg, who I met.....wait for it.....running.  Shocking I know.  But Gregg and I used to run together every Wednesday in Tempe at Papago Park behind the zoo.  I miss those runs and the bar hops afterwards, including an epic 11 miler we did last year on Halloween.  Good times.  It was great catching up with him, I know we'll stay friends as well however long I'm in Seattle.

Gregg and I remembering that Halloween Run around Tempe in 2012.

The whole trip was a success and it was a wonderful return to my old hometown.  It was as great as I remember and hanging out with Doug and Kristin and everyone else really made me feel good about my life, something that had not been easy to do the last few years.  I have been fortunate this last year to have made trips to Salt Lake City to see my brother Jeff, to Michigan to see my friend John Eloff, my parents and other friends, and now to Scottsdale to see Doug and Kristin and others.  None of those trips would have been possible without the help of them and others.  In what has been undoubtedly the toughest year of my life, I have been blessed to not only have great family and friends by my side, but also new friends have become an important part of my life.  All of the good things that have happened to me this last year started in Scottsdale and I will forever have great thoughts associated with my time there.  It was the start of a new chapter in my life, but it's certainly not the last one.  New people have entered my life and I was finally open enough to let them in all the while maintaining the great relationships I had already been so fortunate to have.  Which ultimately reminds me of the expression, You can judge a person by the company they keep, well if that is indeed true, then I guess there is only one thing to say; I'm awesome!

Touchdown Jesus Indeed!  Thanks again Doug, Kristin and every one else.  Fire Up!

High atop Phoenix, Forever Fired Up! Anyone got the line on Tulsa-Tulane?