Dukes Down South: A Trip to the National Championship Day 4/5
Day 4&5
Sunday, Jan 7th & Monday, Jan 8th
I left my “bed” exactly twice on Sunday. Once to get Whataburger for lunch, and once to get TexMex for dinner. I was told you have to Whataburger when you’re in Texas, so I did, but unfortunately I still felt sick from Saturday night so I wasn’t much in the mood for anything. The whole day was a hungover blur, but we had all spent a lot of money already so we were pushing off our Dallas sightseeing until Monday anyway.
On Monday we tried to make a plan to hit some touristy spots in Dallas but we settled on a tour of AT&T stadium in Arlington. We came to Frisco for sports in the first place, so why not tie that into everything we do? The Cowboys’ stadium was surprisingly far from downtown Dallas in the way that FedEx is far from D.C. We had three Redskins fans rolling into enemy territory, so we took our shots where we could during the tour: snapchatting “Go ‘Skins!” over a picture of the star, yelling the same thing while standing on the podium in the interview room, and refusing to smile for any pictures. We spent most of our tour in silence while standing on the field, because the size of it is just overwhelming. It’s so difficult to take it all in, so we hung out on the field just looking around at the stands and biggest TV screen you’ll ever see for at least 20 minutes. Mostly I wanted to get a picture at Zeke and Dak’s lockers, but they happened to be the only two players missing nameplates. According to a staffer, they were stolen by a college football player using the locker room for a bowl game two days prior. It was a fairly all-access tour and only the second NFL stadium I’ve been in, so all in all I’m glad I went. After all, “if you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”
Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the airport and get to school, considering we were already missing a day of classes. It was one of those stark turnarounds that really strike you, going from celebrating a national championship in Dallas to sitting in writing classes in the Shenandoah Valley in 48 hours. But that’s life, and we were fortunate to have gotten to go witness one of the greatest moments in our school’s history. I can guarantee the next time we’re playing for a title, I will be there! Go Dukes!