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My Taurus Game Day Experience – Back Story & Plan

September 23, 2009 in Automotive Industry | 6 comments

Well, I’m pretty darn excited – a few weeks ago, I filled out an application on a Ford website for something called the Ford Taurus Game Day Drive Experience (click here to see the application and Ford’s info about it).  Long story short, they were looking for sports fans that utilize social media to communicate with friends, colleagues, etc.  They also wanted fans that were into road-tripping, and with my tradition of attending a different KU road football game every year, I was a perfect candidate.  I filled out the application and frankly forgot about it.

Then, on Monday evening, I got an email telling me that I’d been selected a winner!  So, after filling out some paperwork and talking with a Ford fleet manager, I’m ready to go.  Tomorrow night at 5:30, a 2010 Ford Taurus will be delivered to my apartment and it’s mine until Monday evening!  I’ll be taking that Taurus to two different football games this weekend – Saturday’s Kansas vs. Southern Mississippi in Lawrence, KS and Sunday’s Green Bay Packers vs. St. Louis Rams game in St. Louis.  They’re providing me tickets to the Packers/Rams game and an allowance for gas and for a hotel, so my buddy Corey Cassaw are going to head to St. Louis on Saturday afternoon and have some fun downtown.

But the best part might be the car…for a few reasons:

  • I drove a 1988 Ford Taurus station wagon all through high school (see the below shot of it).  At the time that car was made, the Taurus was a revolution in the car world, saving Ford and surprising the heck out of just about everyone.  Hard to believe, but it was also the best-selling car in America then.  Of course, by the time I got my Taurus (hand-me-down from Mom & Dad) in 1999, it had 180,000 miles and a lot of Wisconsin winter-induced rust so I hated it.  But it never let me down and I wish I could have it back now.
1988 Ford Taurus Station Wagon

1988 Ford Taurus Station Wagon

  • I’m a huge Ford fan.  Have been since age 14 when I took a fast ride in a Mustang Cobra convertible.  My next car will be a Mustang GT convertible.
  • The new Taurus is a game-changer, if you haven’t heard.  It is a complete, 180-degree shift from the previous rental car queen.  It’s got style, power, tons of high-tech features and quality to match anything in it’s price class.  Ford’s using it as their flagship vehicle now and that’s why it includes technologies like:
    • Seats that can heat, cool and massage you as you drive, plus heated rear seats too
    • Cruise Control that can sense when you’re getting close to cars in front of you and automatically slow you down
    • Blind-Spot warning system
    • Back-Up camera that also lets you know if cars are coming as you back out of parking spots
    • Sync: lets you control just about any phone/MP3 player via voice commands and steering wheel controls
    • MyKey that lets you set up a special key for your teenage driver, preventing the car from going over certain speeds, the stereo from functioning without seatbelts and the stereo from going past a preset volume.  Not real useful for me right now, but in about 20 more years, a godsend!
  • Best of all, I’m pretty sure I’m getting a loaded, top of the line model – maybe even the twin-turbo “EcoBoost” SHO model with 365 horsepower.  Other people that have done this Experience got the SHO so I’m hoping I do too – here’s a picture of one:
2010 Ford Taurus SHO

2010 Ford Taurus SHO

So I’ll be Tweeting, Facebooking, video taping and picture-taking from Lawrence to KC and on to St. Louis, with a mega-recap post coming on Monday.  Follow along by subscribing to this blog or by any of the social media I’m a part of (see the top left of this page).  I’m so excited that Ford chose me for this and I can’t wait to get started – hope you enjoy sharing my experience and most of all, I hope you take a look at Ford* next time you’re car shopping.  Enjoy the ride!

* Nope, they didn’t tell me to say that and they haven’t given me one single rule or guideline about what I have to say.  I could end up thinking this car is terrible and I can post that if I want to.  But I am proud of Ford for the way it’s conducted business since hiring KU-alum Alan Mulally as CEO and I want them to succeed.  America needs them to succeed.

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My Thoughts on Another Brett Favre Return

August 19, 2009 in Other Topics | No comments

I started by posting a comment on This May Concern You and by the time I posted it, I realized it was pretty much my own blog entry.  So I’m reposting it here, with a few things added.  I know everyone’s heard so much about him already and I’m sick of it too, but here it is anyway – my feelings about ole #4′s second comeback.

As someone that grew up in Wisconsin, worshiping Brett Favre like the rest of the state, I think I’ve got a different perspective than some others .  The guy’s the only QB I’d ever known for the Packers and he was truly one of us.  Through the trials & tribulations of his painkiller addiction and the rumored extra-marital affairs, he showed a human side that, in the end, endeared him even more to people, especially Wisconsinites.  His play on the field mirrored his real life, with tremendous success or epic failure a constant trend.  But whether he was winning an NFL-record third MVP award or throwing an NFL-record number of interceptions, he played with joy and a became one of Wisconsin’s favorite sons, alongside Vince Lombardi and Robin Yount in our pantheon of sports greatness.  We all assumed that he’d retire a Packer and then become an ambassador, a coach, a commentator, something…but he’d always be around Lambeau and a part of the fabric of our state, like Bart Starr and many of the other Packer greats.  His final year in Green Bay was magical – his best season in years, the Packers with a 13-3 record, the record-breaking moments throughout the year and that same joy.  Then, he choked in the NFC Championship game against the Giants, who eventually won the Super Bowl.  Not a Jordan-esque picture-perfect ending, but he then sat at a press conference, choked-up with emotion and retired.  We all were saddened but understood it was probably time.

Then, late in the spring of 2008, he changed his mind and told the Packers he wanted to play again.  They agreed and began making plans.  Then, Favre again told them he wanted to retire and they told him, “Ok, we have to move forward with Aaron Rodgers as our QB then.”  A month later, the king of indecision changes his mind again, only to find the Packers didn’t want him anymore.  They’d moved on because they had to, they couldn’t keep waiting for him to make a real decision.

He then began to transform into the sad character he’s become today.  With highly orchestrated press interviews and snide comments, he began turning his back on the people that had worshiped him for 16 years.  He ended up with the Jets, which wasn’t that bad.  I mean, MJ finished with the Wizards and it didn’t really diminish his career in Chicago.  We still remember #23 in red.

And then this winter, he retired again.  Only to start the whole process over again this summer with the Vikings.  After far too much drama and indecision, he’s a member of the Vikings.  The frickin’ Vikings.  I understand why he likes the opportunity – he knows the offense, he’s got a fantastic O-Line and running game to take the pressure off himself.  But seriously, the Vikings are the most-hated rival of the Packers – I hate them more than the Bears.  For him to put on purple and turn his former house-of-horrors (he couldn’t ever win at the Metrodome for the first decade of his career) into his home stadium is blasphemous.  He hasn’t just turned his back on Wisconsin; he’s given all of us a giant middle finger and said, “Your support for 16 years doesn’t matter.  I’m still bitter as hell that the Packers wouldn’t let me change my mind the 18th time so I’m after revenge.  F*ck all of you.”

And the Vikings sold their credibility up the river by letting him play this silly game, skip training camp and still join the team when they said he couldn’t do so.  I predict a lot of locker room turmoil and an early playoff exit.  I only wish I could be in Green Bay in week 8 to boo him mercilessly.  The guy went from the most beloved athlete in America to a wishy-washy, incredibly-selfish egomaniac that can’t live without people fawning over him, and it’s sad.  Maybe I’ll forgive him in seven years when his number is retired in Green Bay and he enters Canton as a Packer, but for now, you’re dead to me Brett Favre.  For now, I’ll just remember this amazing play from his final year in Green Bay, when he beat the Broncos on the first play of OT with this amazing throw:

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