More than just football going on in San Francisco

My time in San Francisco has allowed me to experience many

things that I thought I would never get the opportunity to

experience.

Sure, I went down there to cover the second annual Diamond

Walnut San Francisco Bowl on New Year’s Eve, and that game also

contributed to my experiences, so let me talk a little about what I

saw, things you do not see in Fort Collins.

The most memorable thing I experienced while in San Francisco

came after the 35-21 CSU loss. While celebrating the New Year, Sean

Salisbury, the color commentator for the game and NFL analyst on

ESPN’s Sports Center was also at the same place that my friends and

I were.

One of the people I was traveling with, Nate Robertson, a senior

computer science major at Colorado State, somehow found an opening

and began to argue with Salisbury for a good 45 minutes about

topics ranging from how the Mountain West is better than the Pac 10

(where he found the guts to argue the MWC’s side still baffles me

to this day) and how if Michigan beats USC, Salisbury needs to give

him “props” on his show sometime in the future.

Salisbury took every thing Robertson threw at him in stride, but

did offer to bet him $5,000 that USC would win. Once money was

brought into the conversation, Robertson did back off a bit, and he

finished the argument by taking a picture with the former NFL

quarterback and shaking hands.

“Sean’s a real cool guy,” Robertson said. “He stood there and

talked college football with me.”

Other sites San Francisco had to offer was a man standing on the

corner of the street playing a modified version of three-card

monte. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it is a game

that uses three cards, and the guy running the game moves the cards

around and allows the viewers to pick out the ace of spades, but

for a price.

Did I mention that it is illegal?

The version that I witnessed saw this man use three Mountain Dew

bottle caps and a small red ball.

After studying the game for a few minutes, I figured out that he

had up to three people working for him in the crowd, and sometimes

the ball was never under any bottle cap, but was in his hand.

But this did not deter one CSU student from losing $150 to the

man, and walking away with an empty feeling in his stomach.

Did I mention that it is a really big scam?

But in all seriousness, when the game came to an end, the Rams

not only lost the game, but will lose many great seniors who have

become like legends in the Fort Collins community.

Bradlee Van Pelt, Dexter Wynn, Drew Wood, Chris Pittman, Rahsaan

Sanders, Mark Dreyer, Jeff Flora and all the other seniors will be

greatly missed for helping to continue the amazing turn -around the

CSU program has witnessed during coach Sonny Lubick’s tenure at

CSU.

“It has to come to an end at some point,” Wynn said after the

game.

That is true, but something must also begin for it to come to an

end, and now it is new people beginning to help continue the turn

around.

David Anderson, Justin Holland, Jimmy Green, Marcus Houston,

Brandon Cathy, Courtney Jones, Jahmal Hall and all the other

returning players, it is their turn, and they know it.

“It’s time to lift weights and start the 6 A.M. runs,” Anderson

said. “It’s time to prepare for next season. We have a good young

core coming back.”