Thanksgiving, Families and the Wildcats: The %&#!@ Gator flag episode

I know that UK and Rich brooks have enough motivation to beat Tennessee on Saturday, but somehow, this post needs to get into Papaw Brook’s hands and become reason #1673 why the Wildcats need to pound the Vols. To get rid of the above Gator flag!

My family, like most of yours, had the opportunity and fortune to gather for Thanksgiving Dinner and like most families, the topic turned to sports. Part of the tradition of the gatherings are the inevitable bickering about sports. I get a bad rep for starting a good bit of it, but this is partly due to a running 8 year or so feud I had with my older brother Robert over Brett Farve/Dan Marino. For my credit and to clear my name, there have been other instances of sports related fighting that I have nothing to do with.

For example, my older brother Joe and my nephew Michael are banned from ever playing basketball together again. Apparently there was some fouls that were not called, words were exchanged, and Joe ended up driving home in a huff and left the rest of his family behind. LIFETIME BAN right there.

In the never ending circle of life, Joe’s kid Mitchell was taunting Gator Michael about the upcoming UF/Ohio State NCAA championship football game and Michael, in a shocking fit of Gator fueled rage, pummeled the 9 year old in the living room of my parent’s house. Equally shocking was the fact that there was no punishment. Maybe he was able to use Huntley Johnson to get off scot-free, I don’t know.

And for some reason, the one sided domination of Joe’s other kid Kyle over Michael in “NBA Street” ended abruptly with Kyle owning something like a 173-0 edge in the video game. So you can see that all the sports bickering in the Jordan clan is not always instigated by me. We won’t even get into the great Jordan Fantasy Football League “Coercion Gate” fiasco of 2008.

Now on to the story:

My older brother John is an interesting case to me. He pretty much has bled blue most of his life and still follows the Cats very regularly. He has a lifetime of UK fanhood so while that aspect of him can not be questioned, he also is a Gator football fan. Now part of this stems from the fact that he sent two kids to the University of Florida. I can kind of get that. Like I said, this is the brother that scored the ticket for the 1998 Regional Finals versus Duke and the tickets for UK’s Outback Bowl appearance vs Penn State.

He is a Wildcat, and I even get the Florida thing. When I moved to Florida, football was insane. You had FSU, Miami, and UF in the Top 10 every year, and you had to have a Florida team to avoid being socially ostracized. My adopted Florida team are the Hurricanes and I bleed Cane orange when they are not playing UK (which never happens) so it’s never been a conflict of interest for me. So while I understand him rooting for the Gators (he tries to stay partial when the Cats and Gators play football), the one thing I don’t get is the obnoxious Gator flag in front of his home.

To be fair, it is a seasonal flag. It comes down after bowl season and a UK flag goes up in it’s place. Even during the Gator’s NCAA runs a few years ago, he was pretty low keyed about it. He’s still pretty unhappy with the whole Donovan/Magic ordeal so I think Gator basketball lost all goodwill with him after that.

But during the Thanksgiving festivities today, I made a huge breakthrough deal for the Wildcat football team. If UK can beat Tennessee Saturday night to finish second in the SEC East, the Gator flag comes down for a week and the Wildcat flag flies proudly in the heart of football season.

I was pretty proud of my “brokering a deal” skills since I don’t have to do anything if UK loses. And this is a big part of getting part of the football fanbase in Florida back. Seriously, what would you rather watch? Randall Cobb or a bunch of one yard QB runs? All that is left is for Papaw and company to finish the deal Saturday night.

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