You're looking into the snarling, dagger-bearing skull that graces the bow of the full-size pirate ship that sits in the north end of Raymond James Stadium at Tampa Bay Buccaneers games its cannons fire and it's filled with rowdy swashbuckling souls having a great time. A Tampa tradition for New Year's Day is to celebrate the Outback Bowl played at the Stadium. (The Outback chain of restaurants was founded in Tampa.) This year's teams were the Northwestern University Wildcats versus the Auburn University Tigers. The Outback Bowl is a college football game matching teams from the SEC and Big Ten Conference (3rd pick from each). At the 11:00 am kickoff it was gray and cloudy with intermittent rain showers. Luckily we had passes to a warm and cozy luxury suite so our accommodations, food and drink were excellent. This winter weather is ushering in a cold front that's moving into the Tampa Bay area this evening. Tomorrow's high is forecast to be 58 degrees and a low of 37. Knowing how bone-chilling cold some parts of the US are right now, we folks in Tampa will live through it. The Northwestern fans like this fellow celebrated with tailgate parties, plenty of suds, food and a bit of creative, body-painting flair. Plus, the Auburn tiger was not being treated too respectively at the end of the chain. Auburn won a pretty good game , 38 to 35.
