Justin Renck: Football Fan Day

I attended Fan Day at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium on Sunday afternoon, and that is what I went for, to be a fan. I acted like a kid again and got autographs, only these days it is different because the whole team is younger than me! Still cool though of course, and I hope that never gets old for me. I had to get items autographed for the tailgate trailer that my friends and I have been working on. You will see pics of that soon I am sure!

I got to the stadium around 12:15, which I learned was too late since I did not get every autograph. I took a poster when I got in, and already had another item I would take with me, along with a 3rd one that would only be signed by 2 people (more on that soon).

I took the poster and got it signed at most of the tables, and also took this “Reserved Parking” sign along with me and had most of the guys sign that as well. There isn’t as much room on it, so I didn’t have every player sign that. I had 3-4 of the wide receivers ask me where I bought it and they really liked that sign.

The highlight of the day had to be when I got to the coaches table. There I was, just having them sign the poster, and moving it along to the next coach, and so on. Then I got to Vance Bedford, the Defensive Coordinator. I told him I had something else for him to sign, and I put in front of him a printed copy of his “Get on the Train” speech that he made at last year’s media day! Clint Hurtt was sitting next to him and just started cracking up! He joked that they are going to build a statue of Bedford like they did for Tim Tebow and put the speech on there. Bedford just rolled his eyes and shook his head, all in good fun of course. I just think he gets tired of being associated with that so much because believe it or not, he doesn’t like the spotlight, but he just speaks very well! I also had Coach Strong sign it, and he mentioned something about the speech being framed haha. So I was definitely glad I brought that item!

If you had a poster get signed, I doubt that you can see “Kentucky” on it by now. I had 2-3 players mark through the name on the schedule, and whenever a new player signed it, he at least looked up to see if it had been marked out yet. Dominique Brown signed his name and covered up “Cincinnati” on the schedule, which is where he is from.

Another great part of the day was seeing Michaelee Harris and how upbeat he was. He was talking and joking with his teammates and had a big smile on his face. I told him it was great to see him in good spirits and to keep his head up. He appreciated it and thanked me. It would be very understandable to see him upset and just sitting there signing items and not talking, but he was the complete opposite. Just another reason to root for this kid and hope we see him healthy one day for the Cards.

The only downside of the day was standing in line for 20 minutes in the QB line, only to have time run out and the signing be over before I got to the front of it. Not a huge deal, still had a good time (considering I went there by myself!). I still got plenty of good signatures. Lesson learned: Get there BEFORE the event even starts!

And oh yea, Peyton Siva made an appearance as well!