A Day In the Life With The Claudio's: 2009 Senior Bowl

Yesterday we went to the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama. The Senior Bowl is an all-star football game showcasing the nations top college seniors. We were especially excited to go to the game because there were two Ohio State players participating..Brian Robiskie and Marcus Freeman! Some of the guys I work with went in with me for tickets and we all decided to make a day of it and head down for some tailgating. This was the first college football game Tyler or Holden had ever been to. So we got all decked out in our football gear for the occasion. Holden decided he was going to represent the south and went in Georgia gear (it was at this point I officially denounced his membership in my family)!!! Hahaha!! There were actually times yesterday I introduced him as a friend that Tyler brought with him!! haha..We all had a lot of fun tailgating. We found a great field full of party-goers with lots of people playing football and bean toss games and there was even a local radio station broadcasting from a bus near us. We took a little heat for being Buckeye fans amongst a largely popular SEC crowd, but we represented well!

We headed to the stadium early enough to watch the pregame warm ups. Our seats were on the 45 yard line 5 rows from the field..they were amazing! During warm-ups we were able to go down to the sideline and watch the players go through their walk-through. It was amazing to see how big some of them boys really are! We caught the attention of Robiskie and Freeman and they hinted they may sign autographs after the game. The game itself was pretty much a blowout..the south beat the north 35-18. They cheated and stacked their team with all the USC players and gave the north crappy QB's. It was still a lot of fun to watch though and we all had a blast.

After the game Tyler and Holden did their best to get some autographs. Tyler managed to get Robiskie to sign his Buckeye hat and he then got Freeman to sign the same hat and give him one of his game worn gloves! You can imagine how happy that made him. Holden tracked down the south players and tried to get an autograph from the lone Georgia Bulldog that made the trip. He did get to talk to him but couldn't get an autograph. He went on to ask for his gloves and even helmet claiming "why do you need it, you wont be playing for them anymore anyways!" Those of you who really know Holden can see this conversation as clear as day in your head! Despite not getting any autographs, he had fun passing banter back and forth with several players.

We have already begun planning next years trip (to include Holden asking for God only knows what uniform item!) to the 2010 Senior Bowl. We are going to try to go to Media Day next year where they can get photos and such with the players. Here are some of the photos we took..enjoy!

getting the grill ready to do some tailgating