most memorable football game of my life. i got to meet julius peppers after that game. robbie doane held him to 0 tackles that day and we kicked their ass. vasher had multiple long punt returns (one for a td?), cory redding flipped over ronald curry into the end zone, and montrell flowers found out that he only had one kidney. that was also the first day i ever cried over something just tugging at my emotions. when cole pittman’s dad, a mountain of a man, addressed the crowd before the game there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. just 90,000 people, waiting to watch a football game, all crying together. wild experience.
anyway, i was like 16 at the time, and after the game my dad, friend, and i had to wait for the fourth member of our party to work the post game presser, so we all waited outside of unc’s locker room. they backed up a u-haul truck with like 300 mr.gattis pizzas for the players. o linemen were taking 3-4 pizzas for themselves lol. then julius peppers came out, clearly in a bad mood, which was my cue to walk up introduce my dumbass self to him. i shook his hand (see: his hand enveloped mine like kawhi leonard holding hands with a baby), and told him he was my favorite non-longhorn football player. he was actually gracious and appreciative, which i always remembered. he’s on the short list of freakiest athletes i’ve ever seen in person, and the fact that he was nice to some dumbass kid after the worst game of his life always stuck with me.