Do You Remember Where You Were...?

I am contributing a little something to a site called LibertyFlamesNation.com for a feature they are doing called "FlameFans Featured". Here is my post:


There are some moments in life that are so profound that you always remember where you were when they took place...The Kennedy assassination, the first walk on the moon, 9/11...

The same can be said for sports moments as well. Whether its "The Catch" by Dwight Clark, The Music City Miracle, Sid Bream in the NLCS...

Jon Carone mentioned where he was in 2008 when Liberty lost out on a playoff berth on Selection Sunday. I was at home in Portsmouth, VA that evening, but I had made travel plans to be back in Lynchburg so I could be part of the marching band. It was a gut wrenching feeling when I got word online that we had not made the playoffs...reading FlameFans that night and in the days that followed was like watching the Five Stages of Grief unfold on an internet message board.

I spent the Stony Brook game the next year in the computer lab in DeMoss following the game on ESPN StatTracker, again preparing my travel plans for a playoff game...that TD to Jordan Gush hit me like a 12th round desperation haymaker to the chin...and once again, Liberty came up short.

I have been in church, in bed recovering from surgery and last year, I was traveling with my newly pregnant wife when I got the seemingly inevitable word...but this year, I can remember where I was for a different reason. This year I remember where I was...when history was made. I was in my parents' family room helping prepare for family coming in for Thanksgiving. I had the live stats up on the computer nearby because I could not bear to watch (or even listen to) another year of heartache. As one of the resident "koolaid drinkers" on FlameFans, the losses were particularly painful, because deep down inside, I was losing hope. I knew I could not keep mustering up excuses and explanations and Chicago Cubs fan style "wait til next year" posts...so when I refreshed the page on Twitter and saw Chris Lang post..."blocked" on that final field goal attempt...I didn't scream, I didn't go running all over the house with my shirt off...I simply breathed a sigh of relief, pulled on my Liberty University hoodie and quietly said to myself, "finally" as I headed outside to do some yardwork.

While I won't be in Williams Stadium (or Bridgeforth Stadium for that matter) witnessing the 2014 Liberty Flames football team make history on Saturday, I do know I will be wearing my red...and glad I have a story to tell my now 17-month old son about a pretty special Saturday that I and I'm certain many other members of Flames Nation, will not soon forget...

BJ Williams
Liberty '09
Writer, Father, Broadcaster and Flames Fan til I die

FAN THE FLAMES
#BEATJMU

http://flamesfootball2008.blogspot.com