Happy Gameday Cougs, and a good morning to you and yours. The WSU flags are waving proudly again on ESPN Gameday, now up to 120 consecutive shows where the Coug presence is front and center! Tremendous job to those on the ground, yet another week of Coug pride up in your face early in the morning.
Will Walker has a ton of screencaps, which you can check out at this link, but here’s a few of the best ones from today…..
And a good shot of the new addition to the Coug flag family, in gray:
One cool thing is that you might notice that “whitey” is no longer part of the Gameday experience. Well, whitey is now in possession of Steve Gleason, as part of the NO WHITE FLAGS campaign he is leading in his fight against ALS.
Speaking of Gleason, sorry if this is a downer on gameday and all that….but there was a tremendous story on him on HBO’s Real Sports a few weeks. A really sad, powerful, yet inspiring story on Gleason and how he absolutely will not give up. Check it out:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6pbtS0WIAE&w=450&h=253]
Brutal disease, and at times an incredibly brutal game.
I remember how fun it was to watch Steve play the game, back in college anyway. He was a big part of that first Rose Bowl team in forever, but we used to love to watch him run down the field on special teams when he first showed up at WSU before that 1997 season. My friends and I would always watch him fly down the field on kickoffs, and he looked like a bulldog the way he would get in there and not shy away from anything. In fact we nicknamed him “the bulldog” for the way he played, and also as somewhat of a tribute to his Gonzaga Prep roots as well (bulldogs, bullpups, etc).
And like many of you, I was there in Husky Stadium in the ’97 Apple Cup, and I remember the tremendous collision Gleason had against Cam Cleeland in that game. It was one where Gleason took the brunt of the blow, but Cleeland was also slow to get up after the play. You can see the collision here, it’s rough to watch. But what is sad is not only is Gleason struggling with his own fight, but did you know that Cam Cleeland has been dealing with post-concussion issues since he retired several years ago? Just brutal, the toll the game can take on the body. It’s such a double-edged thing, I mean we love the game so much and it is so much fun to be around and enjoy. But there is a price these guys pay who suit up every week, and sometimes it’s beyond imaginable the pain they deal with on a regular basis. Anyway, of course we all continue to pray and believe in Steve and his family as they fight for a cure.
That’s it for now. Hey, ENJOY THE GAME today and if you are in Pullman, please feel free to share your thoughts after the game! GO COUGS!
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