Football,Shopping,and Good Friends

Needless to say this weekend was a rough one. I was shocked that we lost against Penn State and it's unfortunate the way we lost. We fought hard. It was a team effort, but we just made some mistakes at the wrong times. Coach Paterno even said it himself. We will work hard to correct things and get ready for the Badgers in Madison.

"PEOPLE LET ME TELL YOU 'BOUT (ONE OF MY) BEST FRIENDS"
One of my best friends, Josh Gaines (#47), is one of the starting defensive ends for Penn State. This was our first time playing against each other since our senior years in high school. He attended Northrop High School in Fort Wayne, while I attended Concordia. His team was pretty good and they beat us two out of three times. He was, and still is, a beast.

After the game I made the walk across the field to meet my mother and friends. Unfortunately, my father couldn't make it to the game this week. My mother gave me a big hug and kiss, like she always does. We walked through the gates into a small sea of Nittany Lion fans dressed in blue and white. There were 78 of them, to be exact. One might think that I looked at them as if they were foreigners, but that was not the case. The fans were all from Josh's family, which is basically my second family. Josh had used so many tickets that he was given his own gate at Memorial Stadium. They held a small sign to prove it. Growing up, the Gaines' house was a kind of second home to me. I spent so many nights over at their place, went to church went them, ate meals with them and went on trips with them. Josh and I went on recruiting workouts/visits together as well. Those are great memories. Josh's mother gave me a huge hug when she saw me. I thought she was going to cry for a moment.

The entire family told me how proud they were of me. I, in turn, explained to them how proud I was of "Big" Josh. Seeing them kind of took some of the sting away from such a hurtful loss. It helps you move on and remember how friendships are stronger than any one game. Too often we forget about things like that. I would've rather won on Saturday and still realized the same lessons, but it takes hard times to realize how meaningful the good times are.

MY DAY OFF
Monday is the team's day off. It was greatly appreciated by me because I really felt the need to go off and do something that had nothing to do with football. I watched some film on Wisconsin, but other than that I didn't even want to think about football. I'll have the rest of the week for that.

Once I was finished my morning classes and academic meetings, I made it a point to treat myself with some shopping. In case you didn't know, shopping is one of my favorite things to do. I think I spent three hours shopping around Bloomington. I cruised around town in my SUV listening to some John Mayer and browsing store after store. My favorite stop of the day was at Goody's over on 3rd Street. Great clothes and great prices. I bought some button ups, T-shirts, jeans, khakis and some church shoes. I also threw in some DVDs along with a couple other items.

After my Monday night class, I went to hear ESPN anchor Dana Jacobson speak. She was very informative and had many great things to say. She answered many questions and I took great notes. She has a job I just might want someday.

It is Tuesday and it's time to get on the field and get ourselves ready for the Badgers. It should be fun.

WORD FOR THE ROAD
"You can learn a line from a win and a book from a defeat." -Paul Brown, Former Cincinnati Bengals Coach