Friday, April 20, 2012

Want To Get Away?

From ESPN:  There but for the grace of God go I. And you. And everyone but Carleton Tinker.
Yes, this is breaking news. Tinker is the Alabama Crimson Tide football parent, that guy, the one. He is the unfortunate soul who on Saturday last touched the crystal football the Crimson Tide won for the 2011 BCS Championship before the trophy fell off its pedestal and shattered....
arleton and his son, Carson, the Tide's senior long-snapper, stood along with several other people in the second-floor lobby of the Mal Moore Athletic Facility on Saturday admiring the new trophy, the eight-pound Waterford crystal football valued at upwards of $30,000. Alabama played its A-Day Game on Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium, a half-mile or so down Paul W. Bryant Drive. Carleton Tinker watched several Alabama recruits pick up the trophy to see what it felt like. How could you not? How many people have that opportunity? When the American Football Coaches Association, which awards the trophy, sends it on tour during the season, the trophy has two minders: They allow fans to ogle it, and to have their picture taken with it. But touching is not allowed.
"I didn't walk away with it," Tinker said. "I set it back down on the stand and turned to walk away, and had my back away from the trophy when I heard it tumble. So I looked back at it."
What happened next is a script for one of those old "Wanna get away?" ads that Southwest Airlines ran.
"In my mind, it was slow motion," Tinker said, "as it rolled off the top of the trophy case onto the table onto the floor. I'm not sure if I bumped the table when I turned around, or if my foot caught on the large tablecloth they had draped and puddled on the floor. That's exactly what happened."
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7834277/carleton-tinker-not-really-sure-how-broke-alabama-crimson-tide-bcs-championship-trophy
I have embarrassed myself many times in my life, especially when I suffer foot in mouth disease. (Shocking admission, I know)
But to knock over a national championship trophy and then have everyone looking at you right after it happened and then the press puts you into the national spotlight.  
The kid must be one hell of a long snapper that Saban didn't get too pissed, at least not in public.  But I am sure the kid will have to a few extra sprints and laps to atone for his father.


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