I had a good sports weekend.   I went to the Notre Dame – Washington game on Saturday afternoon and the Redskins – Bucs game at FedEx Field on Sunday afternoon.

I’m not much of a Notre Dame fan but two of my closest friends, Kurt and Thom, are lifelong ND fans.  A good friend of mine, Paul, lives in Notre Dame and he was a phenomenal host to the three of us this weekend.   We had a fantastic Italian dinner in South Bend on Friday night (Digger Phelps was there).  Then, on Saturday afternoon, we tailgated for a couple of hours (we enjoyed a few bloody mary’s since this past weekend marked the 75th anniversary of the bloody mary).  Then, we headed into the stadium.   We had a great time since we were able to watch it from many different places … press box, field, sky box, etc.  There really is something special about college football — especially in a historic place such as South Bend, Indiana.  It turned out to be a thrilling game won by ND in overtime, 37 – 30.

On Sunday, I went to the Skins game with one of my mentees, Sally.  This was her first NFL game.   Also, I recently signed her up to be part of the Junior Washington Redskins Cheerleaders.  The group performed at half-time in front of 90,000 fans!  It must have been a remarkable experience for the young kids to perform on the same field as not only the Skins and Bucs but also where U2 played the previous Tuesday night.

Unfortunately, the product on the field was a bit lacking.   It was an ugly first half — with many dissatisfied Skins fans as the Bucs took a 10 – 0 lead into the locker room at half-time.  Fortunately, the Skins rallied and eked out a 16 – 13 victory.  For me, the greater thrill was seeing the joy and happiness of the faces of the youth as they had the thrill of a lifetime by performing in front of the big crowd.

I love the fall … the changing of the weather, college football on Saturdays and NFL on Sundays!