So the Monday after the wild weekend of college football (aka Auburn's latest miracle) it made for an interesting work day. I'm sure your day was similar.
√ You have the Auburn guy running around smiling like he's the only guy that got a Christmas bonus...well, because he's the only guy that got a Christmas bonus.
√ You have the Georgia Tech guy blabbering on and on about how well they dominated Georgia...Just look at the boxscore!!!
√ You have the South Carolina chick looking for anyone that went to Clempson...failing...sees you and then goes promptly back into her office to pick up a phone that wasn't ringing.
√ Florida chick thinks we should go another direction with the Holiday Christmas party.
√ LSU guy is still drunk somewhere outside of Baton Rouge.
√ You have the guy who has a neighbor who's mechanic is cousins with a girl who once dated a Missouri grad back in the mid-90s. He mentions that dude is probably pumped to come to Atlanta for something other than a layover.
√ At lunch you sit with a bunch of Georgia folks that all look both pleased with yet another win over the North Avenue Trade School and very thankful the season is over.
√ FSU guy should be on top of the world, yet he seems overly antsy and eerily cautious as if that rug next to the coffee table could suddenly slip out from under him.
√ Tennessee guy is out making cold calls and will probably be in the next morning.
√ Then there's the Alabama guy. I didn't see him until the very end of the day, partly because I purposefully didn't seek him out. But there he is, proudly wearing that Bama polo and distinctly contemplative. The "sick" day was there for the taking and instead he came in to take his lumps, all the people that want to help him relive the moment and the others that don't know what to say so they give him an all too condescending pat on the back.
Knowing some measure of the pain he's endured, the inescapable despair at witnessing the hurtful ways in which a game can end, I simply nod. I feel for him. I empathize like none of those others can. I eagerly give him his space having just endured a similar fate a couple weeks ago.
And yet...after we pass each other and exchange knowing glances...I can't help but feel an overwhelming sense of relief that it can happen to someone else's team too.
