Vegas, Baby, VEGAS!

The Wynn & Encore are the two latest additions to Las Vegas Boulevard, also known as The Strip.

Las Vegas is a city that needs no introduction - world class hotels, shows, gambling, and all around debauchery.  We arrived on Thursday for a three day stay to attend the Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl, featuring my 7-5 Arizona Wildcats against the 10-2 BYU Cougars.  It was an incredibly fun time... but three days was definitely enough.  Here's some of the details:  

The "South Strip" is home to New York, New York & MGM Grand.

Christie in front of the Venetian.  After visiting the real Venice this past season, we noticed that the Vegas hotel is a bang on replica complete with the Doge's Palace, Rialto Bridge, and singing gondoliers.  The only things missing were the rude locals, dirty back streets, and prevailing wet smell.

The thing I was looking forward to most was seeing a bunch of former teammates.  It had been 10 years since Arizona was playing in a bowl, so people were coming out of the woodwork to see the Cats.  The furthest visitor to come was Brad Brennan - who just returned from playing football in JAPAN!  (More on him next week... some of his stories of football in another culture trumped even my own!)

Peter Hansen is a one of a kind guy... he would describe this photo as "sexy."

Peter Hansen - aka "The Pistol" - is a very good friend of mine and the one who actually made the connection for me to go play in Catania last season.  He is 6'10, and is the only person I have seen who could successfully jump in the air and block field goals.  During his time at Arizona he blocked 7 KICKS!!!  Unbelievable... prompting the NCAA to actually change the rule which now prohibits players from jumping "over the falls" to block a kick.  Peter was an avid blog reader, and even dropped a few Epperson and Mangano references over the weekend.

From left to right D. Hall, Sean Johnson, Keith Smith, and Peter Hansen.

Also joining us in Vegas was Sean Johnson, who is one of the nicest guys in the world and arguably the Cat's #1 supporter.  Earlier this season Sean and his family hosted us, along with George and Laurie, for the Arizona/Washington game.  Fellow Arizona QB Keith Smith was also there.  Keith preceded me at quarterback at Arizona, and was the MVP of the last bowl game Arizona played in... as well as one of the most heralded quarterbacks to ever come out of Southern California.  (In fact, George saw Keith play in high school, and during a scenic lunch in Cefalu last season, christened Keith's 90 yard touchdown run in the CIF Championship the best play he had ever seen.)  Rounding out the posse was Derrick Hall -- aka "The Hawk" -- who currently coaches at Delaware State and was notorious for stripping the ball loose.

ESPN Radio Interview with John Schuster and Brad Allis for 1290 The Source.

On the morning of the game, I had an early wake-up call to be a guest on the Arizona football pre-game radio show.  We arrived at the Mandalay Bay Sports Book at 8:30am, and I must have still been a little groggy from staying out until 5, because I gave my official prediction for the game as: Arizona 176, BYU -4.  (Yes, that's negative four.)  I had a tremendous time chatting with the two fun hosts - John Schuster and Brad Allis - and we covered a broad range of subjects from European Football to Arizona Recruiting.  They also took great pride in asking me how it felt for my records to be broken.  (Which I answered as politically correct as possible!  SAC!)  

On the way out, I passed this store and had to give a shout-out to my Italian friends!

Posing with Chris Johnson in front of Fat Tuesday's.  This is the BEST watering hole in Las Vegas, which is SLURPEES ON STEROIDS.  Seriously, the strawberry and pina colada mix is the best lava flow east of Hawaii.

The Palm Trees in front of the Trevi Fountain made me realize that this was Vegas, not Rome.

When we were traveling through Europe this past summer, we often commented how Vegas had ruined the whole thing because we had seen it all before on the Strip!  Seriously, if you can't afford a trip to Europe, just book a quick layover in Vegas and you can see it all in an afternoon!  We made it a point to walk through all the "mock" European places that we had visited, including:  Bellagio (Lake Como), Paris (Paris), Monte Carlo (Monaco), Caesar's (Rome), Venetian, and Excalibur (Neuschwanstein).  Let me just say: they are all smaller, but are  much cleaner and have slot machines!  I am still waiting for a Sicily-theme hotel or one that has an entire replica of the Austrian Alps.  

Outside of the Venetian!

The Mirage and Caesar's on the Central Strip.

Shopping at the Forum Shops in Caesar's Palace was like strolling in Rome!  (And 365 days of blue skies per year!)

Playboy's Girls Next Door signing autographs.

The Girls Next Door - aka Hugh Hefner's 3 Playboy Girlfriends - were signing autographs in the mall.  They have become famous through their crazy reality show.  As a side note, immediately to behind this mob was a sports memorabilia store where the great Pete Rose signs DAILY autographs.  Literally, EVERY SINGLE TIME I have been to Vegas I see Pete Rose their.  This day Pete had no line...

~ J. Twice