The Tide Changes Today
December 13th, 2020
Been way too long!
Last night demonstrated just how long the Bucs have been awful. And today represents a chance to change all of that, maybe for a long, long time.
Joe has to apologize to Gators fans. No, for real. Last night Joe quit watching football at halftime of the USC-UCLA game.
LSU-Florida? That would be a three-touchdown blowout for the Gators, at least! Florida had real, legit playoff hopes.
So periodically Joe would check Twitter to see what’s happening in games. At one point Joe checked Twitter and saw a Gators player got flagged for throwing a shoe. “ROTFLMAO!” Joe Twittered. That’s a good one.
At the time, Joe had zero clue just how history-changing that dumb stunt was.
Quick background: LSU and Florida were shockingly tied in what was college football’s version of the Fog Bowl. Announcers couldn’t see the field because the fog was so thick.
With less than two minutes remaining, Florida stopped LSU and it looked as if star Gators quarterback Kyle Trask would lead the Gators to a too-close game-winning drive.
But no! On the third-down stop, Florida defensive back Marco Wilson decides to rifle an LSU player’s shoe down the field. Unsportsmanlike Conduct. First down LSU and LSU used that penalty to set up a game-winning 57-yard field goal.
Joe isn’t making any of this up! You have to be freaking braindead to pull a stunt like this when it costs your team a chance at a national championship. Un-freaking-real.
Joe has seen a lot of things on the football field but never some fool firing a dude’s shoe down the field. Joe cannot come up with words how stupid that was.
It will forever be known as “The Shoe Game.”
Anyway, what made the game more shocking was that LSU had a freshman quarterback making his first start. His name is Max Johnson. Why should Bucs fans care about all of this? Well, Johnson is the son of Bucs Super Bowl-winning quarterback Brad Johnson.
Jenna Laine of ESPN had a picture on Twitter of Max Johnson as a little boy in his father’s arms after the Bucs won the Super Bowl.
Folks, there are people playing college football, some of them on the cusp of playing in the NFL, and they have scant or no memory of the Bucs winning a playoff game.
The Super Bowl in January 2003 was the last time the Bucs won a playoff game.
That could end today with a win over the Vikings. With a win, it puts the Bucs in the driver’s seat for a wild card with three games to go.
No, beating the Vikings today doesn’t mean the Bucs will win a playoff game. But you know what? You can’t win a playoff game if you are not in the playoffs.
Time to change that today!
How it started. How it’s going.
Congrats, Max Johnson (@qbmjohnson2020) pic.twitter.com/NvOA2QaZoI
— JennaLaineESPN (@JennaLaineESPN) December 13, 2020
December 13th, 2020 at 10:31 am
The “Bull”!!!
December 13th, 2020 at 10:39 am
H*!! Yes! My new favorite college QB. Nice story
December 13th, 2020 at 10:59 am
57-yards isn’t exactly a short FG…props to the kicker, whoever he was.
December 13th, 2020 at 11:00 am
Thanks for the apology Joe. I was sick to my stomach.
December 13th, 2020 at 11:03 am
I regret that I saw that game and I was absolutely flabbergasted!
Stupidest thing I have ever seen in sports.
Someone should build a monument outside out Ben Hill/Steve Spurrier/ Florida Gator’s Field depicting that moment in stupidity and then the Gator’s fans could tear down that monument every December 12th.
LSU shoe game!
December 13th, 2020 at 11:09 am
The USC win was so Buc like. Ucla being the Bucs. Drive Down field score and Totally F it up with a few seconds to go and lose!!!
December 13th, 2020 at 11:26 am
In the fog!
December 13th, 2020 at 11:31 am
The son of a Florida State QB ending the false playoff and Heisman dreams of the Alachua County Gators is music to my ears! They were always frauds and to lose to a Freshman in their sorry stadium in the way that it happened is gold. Add FSU basketball winning their 7th straight against Alachua on the same day, makes it even better. Great college football day yesterday because Criminal Gables got exposed at home, too. Gators will ALWAYS suck!
December 13th, 2020 at 12:20 pm
One wonders how the spawn of a former FSU stud didn’t choose his pop’s alma mater.
Has FSU sunk that far?
December 13th, 2020 at 12:34 pm
TRS
As I have frequently said I’m not a football fan of any Florida college but root for them all with prejudice towards the winning teams. I’m a front runner for sure.
That was an incredibly tacky post. Florida’s star player dropped unconscious and rushed to the hospital where he was in critical condition. The Gator players had to be polled twice if they even wished to continue.
To claim scoreboard in a game like that shows the sheer DESPERATION of Nole fans. Your football program is in total shambles and so you have to cheer for another state team’s loss because it may be a decade before you ever approach nine wins again.
December 13th, 2020 at 12:43 pm
Cobraboy
The Johnsons live in SEC country now…
Why play in a sub par league ?
December 13th, 2020 at 1:26 pm
Good for little Johnson, seriously! I wondered why the gators weren’t getting the playoff recognition they had deserved, seeing how SEC championship match up destined but, Alabama was always in the official spot that matters. Now after that “shoe gater” I’m more thankful nonw of the Lightning have taken their skates off and attacked someone i.e. Happy Gilmore style. (stupid joke I Know. But, what’s no joke is the Bucs have every thing that you need to get the job done now lets gooooo and Hoist the 🏴☠️ , 🔥 the canons the Viking are sailing in to bring us down. Capture a W on the field and make them walk da Pewter Plank dahn to the bottom of Tompa! …..BAY!!!!!!!!!!!!