Three Guys in a Basement

tgiab.com was invited to appear in the Irish Blogging Gathering, (sponsored by SubwayDomer) a weekly compilation of 5 Notre Dame / Football / Tailgate / Anything questions that are answered by a group of bloggers.  Below are tgiab.com’s answers, with input from two of the four Three Guys in a Basement:

1. You’re having some beers and brats outside Notre Dame Stadium, just chilling with friends. If you could have one Notre Dame player or coach drop by to share a drink, a brat and some stories with you, who would it be?

ANSWER #1

I would have to say it would be Mike Goolsby. At the USC v. Notre Dame game in 2004, Mike Goolsby’s dad stopped by our tailgate, and we had an awesome time. And that was just his dad. I wonder how fun it would be to tailgate with the real Goolsby. At UNC two weekends ago, tgiab.com tailgated with Tony Rice, which was pretty sweet. He’s a really good guy, and it was fun to see one of the 1988 National Champion rings.

ANSWER #2

Ronny Rodamer – Anyone who I’ve run into at a bar in Knoxville and tells me he loved Davie and is clearly having a good time is a winner in my book.  Anyways, I figure everyone would say a coach.  Or maybe I’d go with a great player like Montana or Brown, who could tell us about their exploits in some of their greatest games (Chicken Soup game, Heisman season, etc.).

2. What was your best experience ever with a tailgate party?

ANSWER #1

This a three-way tie for me:

#1. @ Tennessee 2004. We decided to take an RV from 203 e marion street (in South Bend) to Knoxville. A Thursday night stop to check out Miami of Ohio, and by noon on Friday we began our tailgate. For the game on Saturday evening. We tailgated next to a meat vendor (true story), who was cooking up anything from sausages to filets. The tailgate got a little rowdy, and for a portion we were on top of the RV (a long portion). Oh, and to cap things off and to tie this into #1, Mike Goolsby himself scored a touchdown (albeit a premature celebration).

#2 @ USC 2006.The Barf Bonanza.We ate our Thanksgiving dinner at the Harrah’s buffet in Las Vegas (classy, we know), only to wake up the next morning to yet another RV. After putting on our soberest face, they gave us the RV keys, and off to LA we went. After driving through Compton and most likely any other horrible neighborhood mentioned in Tupac or Snoop Dogg’s songs, we arrived. The tailgate had everything. An incredible playlist, a cube van, beer pong, watermelon smashing, guitar burning/smashing, shopping carts, etc. Somehow we made it out of there with only minor injuries / legal problems.

A video of the tailgate

#3 Michigan 2008. The Greatest Playlist of all time. The “Throw and Catch”. The Champagne poor. This tailgate had it all. 7 of the 8 203 e marion street residents made the return trip, and all four of us from tgiab.com. The rain only added to the tailgate experience. The below pictures ensure that it was a decent time:

ANSWER #2

Michigan game our Senior year – it started at 7 a.m., we didn’t have food, we took down a garage, and we didn’t get arrested.  I’d say the UW game but we had arrests, played football in the street and brought the police to the tailgate to ticket Lilly and others, and Doug got hurt (and somehow didn’t the week before).

3. There are lots of great tailgate experiences around the country – what school’s tailgate tradition do you most want to experience?

ANSWER #1

I think it would be great to tailgate on a boat. Can you imagine doing a backflip, shotgunning a beer, and then docking up and walking into a Notre Dame game? I guess the only potential spot (that I can think of or that I have heard of) is Washington. And what a coincidence, we play Washington this week. Alas, no one from tgiab.com will be able to make it to the game. However, both members from tSAS (The Subway Alumni Show) will be there. We can only hope that boating, backflips, and shotgunning will be carried out to the nth degree by tSAS.

ANSWER #2

Ole Miss – I’d love to tailgate in the Grove with seductive sorority girls walking around in their finest dresses. It screams classy to me, and if anyone knows me, I’m very classy, just like DK and Claire.

4. Indiana decides that their drinking laws are far too un-draconian (I’m from Wisconsin. I don’t understand these things like “kids aren’t allowed in bars,” “your parents can’t give you liquor if they are supervising” and “no alcohol purchases on Sunday”), and drinking is now forbidden on Saturdays. The Excise Police stop by your tailgate, and proceed to dump out the liquor you were attempting to hide from them. What do they pour out?

ANSWER #1
It all depends on what time they come:

9 am: They poor out 20 cases of beer, 3 handles of vodka, 1 handle of rum, 24 sparks, 24 maddogs, and some random airplane bottles of booze. We keep the Bloody Mary Mix, cokes, and Red Bull.
11 am: They poor out 16 cases of beer. 2 handles of vodka, ½ a handle of run, 16 sparks, and 14 maddogs
1 pm: They poor out 12 cases of beer. 1 handle of vodka. 8 sparks, and 8 maddogs.
2 pm: They poor out 4 cases of beer. A drop of vodka. A half shotgunned sparks, and 3 maddogs.
2:45 pm: There is nothing to poor out. Everything is gone. All tailgaters are very confused.
3:15 pm: 3 cases of beer. 8 sparks, 24 airplane bottles of booze (after a sprint to Belmont, of course)
3:30 pm: A couple beers and maybe a Sparks that has been dropped on the ground. I would welcome this, however, because it would force us to get our asses in the game to start cheering for another Irish victory.

ANSWER #2
Maybe two beers. It will be like 40s at 4 the first weekend of our sophomore years at ND, when BroJo walked into our room to bust us for breaking the new alcohol policy. He made us pour a few drinks out, but I was running around and grabbing drinks and hiding them wherever I could. I then finished like 5 half drank 40s (mine was already gone). I make good life decisions. If this isn’t a legal decision, I’d say we would have several cases of beer left. We would have already successfully finished off all Sparks and MD20/20s at the tailgate.

5. OK, I couldn’t leave it alone completely. How do you feel about the impending end of the Coach Willingham era at Washington?

ANSWER #1
I am indifferent to it. As written in our guest columnist’s article, I was somewhat worried that he would turn Washington into a tip tier program. It is nothing against the man, but I just didn’t want to keep hearing for years to come about Notre Dame’s firing and how it was race-initiated, etc. No ill will against the man, I just don’t think he is cut out to be a Division I football coach. Good luck in his next endeavors.

ANSWER #2
I don’t really care. I guess I feel it justifies my belief that he is a weak coach who is also a very bad recruiter. I really had no hard feelings against the man when we fired him other than the fact that he was not a good coach for ND. But then he played the race card the next season in an interview with John Saunders. I’m no racist and I hate being called a racist, even if it is just implied that by being an alumni at ND I may have been anti-Ty because of his race. For that he lost my respect and I no longer feel the need to think about him or care about his coaching career. On the other hand, I am happy for him that he will be able to work on his golf game uninterrupted by coaching in the Fall (I’d add recruiting, but we all know he didn’t let that get in the way of golf).

Thanks everyone for reading, and please look forward to this as a weekly collaboration.  In a few weeks, tgiab.com will host the Irish Blogger Gathering, so if you have any questions you would like us and other bloggers to answer, please let us know.

Filed under: Irish Blogging Gathering