New Orleans Title Game Diary: Scene Four

By Spencer Hall
Spencer Hall is covering the run-up to BCS Title game. His sleep schedule may never recover.
Your outfit of the day belongs to LSU fans, predictably.
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High spirits at Port of Call, the stellar hamburger joint on Esplanade and Dauphine, as evidenced by this cheerful exchange between a young woman from LSU and a middle aged Buckeye fan.
LSU fan: Hey, I’ve got a question for you.
Buckeye Guy: Sure.
LSU Fan: What’s something we can taunt you with? We just don’t know what to say when we see you.
Buckeye Guy: Ha-HA! Well, how about [extreme expletive deleted]?
LSU Fan: That’s a little blunt!
Buckeye Guy: Hey, it works for us.
LSU Fan: Um...okay!
See? They’re getting along so well they can even share the trash-talking playbook.
Les Miles talks with the media prior to the game.

Today we’ve been hanging out with mostly Ohio State fans, and most seem both cautious and cautiously optimistic. They usually wince a little bit when they say this--last year’s public embarrassment in the title game is still a very, very sore point for them. “We just don’t want the same thing to happen again,” said a woman next to us at breakfast this morning.
Vendors here have no idea how much food or drink they’re actually moving other than one constant answer: “a lot.” The bartender at Tropical Isle, home of the infamous Hand Grenade (a.k.a. “New Orleans’ Most Powerful Drink”) guessed they would sell “over a thousand easy tonight,” which is a lot of green evil drink sloshing around in tailgating stomachs.
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