This picture would've been a lot more satisfying if the game would've gone the other way.
On Saturday, I made the trek up I-94 to take in the St. John’s Homecoming game along with 16,420 other football fans. It was a NCAA Division III record for attendance, and it really was the perfect storm- Homecoming, big rivalry game against St. Thomas, Tommies undefeated and ranked #4 in the nation, beautiful fall afternoon…it had it all.
The second the game-tying extra point clanged off the upright in overtime and gave St. Thomas a 27-26 overtime win over my alma mater St. John’s, I knew my friend Kirk, a Tommie grad, would be sending me this message-
“BTW, I demand a full writeup of the game. Equal coverage. We frickin’ deserve it.” I’d been poking fun of the Toms for years due to their 12 straight losses against SJU…so I decided to grant his request.
Now, if I’d gotten this request the last time the Tommies beat the Johnnies (1997), I probably would’ve told Kirk- very colorfully- that if he wants to see a writeup on a Tommie win, maybe he do his own bleeping writeup. (We won’t mention the concept of a “text message” was still a loooong way off, and I’m pretty sure I would’ve worked in comment on how the Packers were the defending Super Bowl champs). Thirteen years, apparently, have a way of mellowing a guy out. So let me attempt to look at it through those purple-tinted glasses…
It’s often said that to break a long losing streak that borders on a jinx, that team needs to win a gut-wrenching, up-and-down emotional wringer of a game. Look at the 2004 Red Sox- to finally get past the Yankees, they only needed to come back from a 3-0 deficit in the ALCS, something no team had ever done. The Tommies? They didn’t have an 86 year losing streak, but the 13 year skid they were on certainly had to seem like 86.
Streak-breaking games also have those “you’ve gotta be effing kidding me” moments that make it seem like the streak will never end. Let’s pick up the game in the fourth quarter…St. John’s is holding onto a 20-14 lead, but the Tommies have the ball and are methodically marching it down the field, right down toward their student section. Finally, with just over two minutes to go, the Toms punch it in and bedlam ensues on the Tommie sideline and stands…but the extra point sails wide!! (That’s moment #1.)
With the relief of having dodged a bullet, the Johnnies start marching down the field for a game-winning score, a slow burn for Tommie fans who’ve already resigned themselves to yet another heartbreaking defeat. We get to a 4th and 1 situation just outside the edge of SJU field goal range, so the Johnnies go for it…and in a play that needed a measurement, the Johnnies pick up a first down (moment #2). There’s a minute to go, SJU’s inside the 30, I’d been watching the Johnnie kicker boot 50-yarders in warm-ups…this is going to be good. Then, Wade Phillips took over the SJU play-calling duties, calling a pass play on first down…and, of course, the out route gets jumped and the ball gets picked off. We’re going to overtime (and I’m the one muttering “you’ve gotta be effing kidding me”. Seriously, a pass play????).
In OT, the Tommie offense scores quickly and tacks on the extra point to go up 7. SJU has a bit more trouble moving it, and we get to a 4th and 4 situation on the 8 yard line. Tommie fans are going bonkers. Their sidelines are going nuts. The ball is snapped and a Tommie defender gets a great run on the quarterback, hitting him just as he let go of the ball…but the low, fluttering pass is caught, the receiver makes a juke, and it’s touchdown Johnnies!! (There’s moment #3, and the Tommies have to be wondering just what do they have to do to end this jinx.) 27-26, and then…doink.
You really didn’t have to look too hard to see the weight of 13 years of losing evaporating from the Tommies sidelines as they and their fans rushed the field. The monkey was off their backs and the enterprising students were already thinking of slogans to put on T-shirts for the 2011 game. And as I watched the purple-clad students dance around on the field with their football team, I realized my comebacks of “way to win for the first time this millennium” and my pictures of this banner were going to ring pretty hollow. Why?
Because now those Tommies have the belt.
Dammit.
Bravo, Danny. Bravo.