Of All Days, Win This Day

It's here.

It's the day we've been waiting for since January 11, 2011. Another crack. A shot at redemption. A new opportunity to summit the mountain.

Sports is a weird obsession. We put so much emotion into people we don't know playing a game over which we have no control.

Any Duck fan who tells you they are calm and at peace right now is a liar. We've been here before. We've experienced losing this day. It would still be an incredible season. A conference title. A Heisman trophy. A Rose Bowl victory. But there would always be  that unfinished feeling. A what if one more play had broken our way? A will we ever get another crack? A loss is a real possibility. And it would be no less crushing than it was four years ago in Glendale. It may even be more so.

But a win. That's a real possibility, too. It would be incredible. Oregon football has been around for 120 years, and we may be mere hours away from experiencing what no Duck fan has ever experienced. When you become a fan as a little kid, you dream of your team winning a title. When I was a kid in the early '90s, the thought of Oregon ever winning was was the most unrealistic of dreams.

I want this for the players on this team. I want this for the University that I love so much. And, quite frankly, I want it for myself.

The summit is within reach. Win this day, and the party won't stop until August.

QUACK QUACK!

GO DUCKS!