Now that I’ve had a chance to settle down a bit from the trip last week in Vegas, I thought I would sit down and give a re-cap of the events. For those that don’t know, this is the 2nd year of this event. Last year it was simply an all-star game and this year it was the game plus the first class of the Women’s Football Hall of Fame being inducted. Needless to say, it was a crazy busy and fun experience.

On Wednesday, my teammate Sherrie Hill and I, got dropped off at the airport by my wife. We got there early enough to get a bite of lunch to eat before we boarded the airplane. My seat was way in the back of the plane but I watched the first Creed movie to get me excited about the trip.

We arrived around 6pm and proceeded to pick up a rental car. We drove to the hotel and checked in. We got to our room about 10 minutes before we needed to head to chalk talk. I went to the defensive chalk talk just as they were starting and we went over introductions as well as our defensive scheme.

I then picked up my uniform and new sweatshirt and went back to the room. Yolanda Searcy from Mile High was staying with us and she got in around 12:30AM that night. We all passed out and got up about 5:30AM in order to get ready for the first practice.

 

The schedule was set up so that we had 2 practices on Thursday, 2 on Friday, and the game on Saturday. Normally, at all-star games you usually have 1 practice just to make sure you all got there and figure out who is playing where. This one however, is basically set up like a mini football camp with the game at the end.

Our first practice started that day at 8AM. We warmed up, had some introductions, and then went with our position groups. I was with the linebacker group which had some great talent. We did some drills before going into 7 on 7 and later team defensive periods.

After the first practice we had a little downtime so Sherrie, Yo, and I went to Applebees for lunch. A funny thing happened when we all tried to get up from the table however, we all were stiff as hell! We managed to get going a little bit and head back to the practice field for the afternoon practice.

The second practice was more of the same with a little more contact. We put more of our blitzes and stunts in and worked on our coverage in man. This takes a little time as you are all from different teams and it takes a minute to get the communication down.

 

We had apparently brought the rain from Seattle as it poured most of the practice. People from Cali and Texas weren’t used to it  but those of us from the NW kind of giggled about it. Although, I will say that the turf was not made for heavy water like the ones in the NW are as the water was pooling on the turf in puddles. It did make it fun when we went over a tackling drill and it turned basically into a slip n slide.

After the second practice we headed to the hotel to shower and head down to the buffet for dinner. Angelica “Gellie” Grayson sat with us as and we chowed down. I was starving. I finished off dinner with a bowl of frozen yogurt with rainbow sprinkles. Don’t judge. I love rainbow sprinkles.

We passed out early that night and got up the next day to do it all over again. We headed to the field sore as hell and stretched out a lot. Each practice a different team would lead the warm up and it was San Diego’s turn. Their warm up incorporates some interesting stretches. You can tell it’s thought of by Cali people. Think lot’s of hip circles.

This practice they tried to work on more scheme and less hitting as we were all sore. My favorite was of course going into team sessions as it’s fun to play with people that you play against all the time. Your bond then becomes less about your home team and more about offense versus defense. You create a new team.

For lunch, we went back to the same Applebees because why not? We actually go the same waitress and had the same problems getting back up out of the booth. It can be tricky getting a meal in between practices. Everyone has different preferences. I want something solid but not heavy. If it’s too heavy I feel lethargic.

We went back to the field for the 2nd practice and this time it was my Seattle team’s turn to the lead the warm ups. Kase led them but Kiki and I stood next to her to help her remember the order. It’s a lot to remember!

We finished the afternoon on a high note as you could tell the offense and defense’s were starting to gel more. I wish kind of that was the entire practice, just going against each other over and over. Drills are important and instruction is important but scrimmages are where the fun is.

We headed back to the hotel to shower. I had to get ready for the Hall of Fame Ceremony. I was a little nervous but excited. I had planned my outfit a couple of weeks prior and was ready to go. I was not the only who was nervous however, as Kase came into my room beforehand stating she was.

When it was time to go, I met up with Kase and Lu and Lu’s 3 kids to go down to the lobby. They were adorable in their little matching outfits. We went down to the lobby and I took some pictures of them. We then ran into Bean and her husband as well as met a few other inductees.

The event was at this nice restaurant that had an event space in the back. I walked in checked in. I got a little ribbon that I pinned to my shirt. All the inductees were wearing one. The seating was assigned and I got to sit at Bean’s table. I went to get some food which turned out to be really good Chinese food.

Other people filled in and ate before the MC got up and began an introduction. They then played this video which has a collage of the inductees in it:

After the video, we were each called up to receive our award and give a short speech. Well, some of us went short, then they became longer. When it was my turn I decided I would just keep it short because I realized that there were another 15 people or so after me and I didn’t want to take all the time.

 

I decided instead to write a blog of my thank you’s that you can read here.

Once we had all given speeches, we got some pictures in. I know some people stayed after to socialize but I was exhausted and decided since we had a game that next day I should head to bed and that is what I did.

On Saturday morning, I went down with Sherrie to get a small breakfast and then we got our gear all ready. We went down to the pool area around 9:30AM to meet with the team. We got a pep talk from coach Rick and then went into our position groups. More pictures and videos ensued as we started to get excited.

 

We drove over to the field which is the same field we played at when were down in Vegas for the Best of the West Tournament. It is really pretty but with the mountains has little reception. We went into the locker room to get ready.

Now our uniforms were all white. I’m not a fan of white pants as they aren’t flattering on hardly anyone unless you have 2 percent body fat but it is what it is. The funny part is how tight they were. I put mine on at the hotel room without a girdle and they were fine. Once I put the girdle on and then the game pants, I struggled to get them over the padding. I had to work them in a little.

I later would not feel so bad because even the really skinny people were having issues. It than began to be a thing where people were helping each other pull up their tight pants over their girdles. It was pretty funny.

We went out onto the field and warmed up and came back into the locker room for the final time. Or so we thought! I grabbed my stuff and was at the front of the locker room waiting for this pep talk I knew was coming before we would storm onto the field to victory!

Then Coach Rick came in with a solemn look and I was like uh oh. He said that the refs they had contracted to come out for the game, apparently wrote the date down wrong, and were not here.

I really think it was at this moment that we won this game. We could have easily panicked, stressed, and worried about things out of our control. Instead we had a team discussion about 6 pep talks, and we decided that no matter what, that we wanted to play.

We went into the gym to await our fate. After about 20 minutes in there, we were told that we were getting replacement refs but it would take time for them to get there so we had another hour before kickoff.

We came into the middle of the gym in a giant circle and decided that a rep from each team there would teach us a chant and we would add them together into one giant chant. It was pretty cool to see it all together in a symbolic connection between nearly 60 people combining into one team.

We were finally given the OK and went back onto the field to run through a shortened warm up. Finally, the last ref arrived and we lined up for the national anthem. We were all so happy to start the game!

One of the interesting things about all-star games is that it’s usually the defense that starts to click first as it’s easier to install a defense in a short time period than an offense. It is no surprise that it was a low-scoring game to me. What is a surprise is how it was played.

What you saw was not so much offenses that weren’t on the same page but rather defenses that were. Our defense was flying around together as a complete unit and it felt good. The intensity for this game was higher than any other all-star game I’ve played in and I have played in 8 now.

It felt honestly more like a playoff game. Each possession mattered. Each play mattered. Each penalty mattered. There was an edge to the game. There were hard hits. All quarterbacks were getting knocked around. Offenses would drive into the red zone and the defenses would stop them. They missed a FG. We had a FG blocked. It was awesome.

 

It was 0-0 all the way into the mid 4th quarter. I had just come off from a defensive series and sat on the bench with the rest of the defense. Our defensive coordinator was asking questions and I was in the middle of a response when everyone started going crazy. We moved the ball into the redzone and then finally OJ Jenkins caught a pass out of the backfield for a touchdown to break the tie.

We held on for the win and it felt really good. We then all got medals and took a million pictures and gave a thousand hugs. Then the adrenaline slowed down and I was sore and cold! Sherrie, Yo, and I headed back to the hotel.

We showered and decided to go down to the lobby to eat at the Steak n Shake. We had earned a giant meal and we were going to take advantage. Yo decided that Sherrie was eating too slow and I do believe Sherrie took that challenge on and wiped the floor with us. Why 2 linebackers would think they could out eat a lineman is beyond me but we tried.

Later that night we went out to the Gold Spike club and had a blast. I beat Sherrie at arcade hoops and then many people from the game came out to dance. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay long as our flight was early on Sunday.

I arrived home around 11AM on Sunday and absolutely crashed. It was all worth it.