Back in May of 2010, I sent a text message to one of my good friends Kyle. I've known Kyle for a ridiculously long time and he, along with Brandon, Andrew, Chris, and David (I promised shout outs here), shares an affinity for sports, Top Ten lists, and wasting time like none other. Anyhow, my text message basically went like this:
So, how about every Tuesday we come up with a ridiculous Top Ten lists ranking pretty much everything we can imagine in life. It will be fantastic.
Since that point, we have been going on facebook most Tuesdays and coming up with some of the most ridiculous lists out there. Everything from worst sports names and least favorite NBA stars to favorite moments in College Football history in our lifetimes and Best Uniform designs. To say that this group is the pinnacle of fans being fans would be to shortsell how much fun our little group has had. And while it is only a group of 23 or so people, I always felt like an insulated thing between friends would be best served as such instead of trying to bring it to a larger audience.
However, in the past couple of months, I have been toying with the idea of bringing TTT to the masses, or at least to Off Tackle Empire. See, the absolute best part of writing for a site as diverse as OTE is that we get great interaction. Sometimes it's a little heated, but it's always because someone has a unique point of view. Most everyone here knows sports, a little history, smart-ass pop culture references, and how to present that in the comments. As such, this seemed like the perfect venue to reintroduce Top Ten Tuesdays to the world.
So how exactly does this work? Well, I will be trying to come up with a topic for conversation every single week and post my Top Ten for all of you to roast and offer up your own suggestions. During the season, I also hope to have a Top Ten Tuesday Top Ten (Overall Top Ten that is) list to engage with a little bit of national talk on the OTE blog. The TTTTT (5T) was originally my buddy Dave's (who I might add is currently writing for Corn Nation about basketball and doing a great job) idea. Regardless, he said it would be okay for me to take credit and get blasted each week for my terrible view of who should be in the Top Ten, especially by Nebraska fans who are angry Nebraska isn't in the Top Ten every week.All I ask of you the readers is to be interactive. My hope with this piece, as well as most everything we do on OTE, is that it provides excellent content that the public is interested in; but more importantly, that it provides content that introduces us to each other's point-of-view, shared experiences both geographically and not, and hopefully gives us a few laughs or head nods before we have to start a day of work. So that is what this little piece is trying to do. I hope that you can get to know the writing team here at OTE a little better and hopefully weigh in on your thoughts as well. The moment we think this is getting stale, we'll move on, but I really hope this turns into a large version of my little TTT experiment that started a few years back. Oh, and while many of these (especially in the coming weeks) will deal with B1G topics, some of them (like today) will be more general. After all, we all love B1G football, but its definitely a big world out there.
Okay, so now that we've got the intros out of the way, I thought about what I wanted to have as our inaugural OTE TTT. My initial idea was that we did something in the video game realm because really, the highlight of my day will be when I leave work and go buy NCAA 2013. However, I feel like a better way to really introduce this concept is to hopefully provide a little bit more about me as a sports fan. With a special shoutout to my buddy Chris as this was a topic idea he threw at our group about a month ago, here goes:
Top Ten Landmark Sports Moments in My Lifetime (Or those ten moments you'll never forget as a fan)
HM: Stewart to Westbrook - I don't know what I would take out to add this one in, but I'll never forget watching this play on a crappy television, thinking there was no way the catch was made, and then laughing... a lot. Alright, on to the real list.
10. 2008 US Open - I'll never forget watching this on the Internet livestream as Tiger hobbles around on a Monday. That playoff under that set of circumstances was ridiculous. I will admit, I'm a huge fan of Tiger Woods... I should probably move on after that confession.
9. Sosa-McGwire's Race for the HR Record - Okay, so you'll notice in the coming weeks that I cheat on these lists... a lot. Seriously though, for anyone who is a sports fan, how was that summer not the most amazing way to deal with the time between football and football? As a Cubs fan, this was probably the most interesting moment for me that didn't end in my trying to punch my hand through a wall.
8. OJ Simpson's Bronco Chase - I was a huge fan of OJ Simpson, and I thought there was no way this case was unfolding the way it did. Then all of a sudden there is OJ Simpson in his White Bronco getting chased down the interstate. Such an unbelievable scene. I was super young, as well, so it was hard to really understand everything that was happening.
7. Reggie Miller torches the Knicks - I remember my dad saying it wasn't over and thinking he was crazy. I was really young, and my attention span was not exactly wonderful. Still, if dad said it wasn't over, then it wasn't over. We all know the rest of the story.
6. Bartman Game - I could not believe that game. So many errors and stupid plays giving Florida a chance. Probably the most depressing series in my Cubs' fan history. No reason that team wasn't in the World Series...
5. Dallas-Buffalo SB 27/28 - As a young Bills fan, I remember these much more than the Washington and NYG games. To this day, I hate the Cowboys pretty much more than any team in any sport. I would be lying if watching Romo suck isn't as satisfying as the Bills win as of late.
4. Usain Bolt destroys the 2008 Olympics - Laughing as you run and still killing the field? Pretty much the most dominant sprinting performance in recent memory. While my favorite US moment was Michael Johnson in Atlanta, this is definitely the most awesome Olympics moment in sprinting. The 2008 Olympics were awesome.
3. Nebraska-Miami 1995 Orange Bowl and Cory "Slesh-en-jaaaaaah" scoring two TDs -Come on, you didn't really think this list would be complete without the most important team in my fandom-ness (come on, I'm making words up and you are going to deal with it) making it a couple of tiems, did you? Seriously, though, this was such an amazing moment. I was 10 years old and I remember how the past five years of my life had been spent hanging on every Husker win and loss. It looked like this was going to end poorly before Cory Schlesinger scored those two TDs. I was outside in the cold screaming with all my neighbors and it was awesome.
2. Phelps-Cavic 2008 100M Butterfly - .01 seconds separated the 2 and Phelps wins his 7th gold. Ridiculous moment. I know this seems like a really silly moment to have this high, but it was Team USA and Phelps trying to break history. I remember being with friends and just going crazy when it showed Phelps won despite it looking like he didn't. So much fun.
1. Touchdown Tommie Frazier goes off in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl - Everyone talks about, "The Run," in Nebraska circles, and rightfully so. Even BTN wants this to be a part of their conference lore because it was just so awesome. Frazier was pissed he didn't win the Heisman and he just went absolutely bonkers in that game. Sitting back with your feet up watching the fourth quarter of a game many talking heads predicted you to lose made me as proud a fan as possible and is arguably the most important part of my fandom today.
So... How about you all? What are your most landmark moments and where did I swing and miss on my important moments in fandom, you know, remembering I'm 27 and all?