Tony Altimore

LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT THE STATE OF COLLEGE SPORTS FINANCES:
(a thread🧵)

1/ There are areas that I think the media misses the boat on the $ state of college sports

It starts with revenue:

Rapidly growing gaps are getting worse, and unpromoted G5s are going to be in big trouble

20 years ago today, my former boyfriend Nic died at age 24.

He was an extraordinary young man, so please allow me a moment to tell you about him.

Nic somehow made life feel like 1+1=10 when we were together, and he loved to teasingly call me by my old high school football number instead of by name ("Yo, 20... Let's get dinner.").

I never figured out which idea he liked more: the yellow football pants or the alphanumeric alliteration of "Tony"/"Twenty."

On that awful Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2006, Nic got overwhelmed by a bunch of things. He didn't know they all could have been OK. I was serving overseas at the time, and he had told me on the phone to come home to him. I already was on the way and en route back to D.C. when I called him on Oct. 29, but I'd missed him by five days.

Having lived all across the country and all around the world, it's wild that the best guy of them all grew up only 1.5 miles from me in Michigan, and was on my high school's swim team, even though we didn't meet until after college in D.C.

Nic was fun, funny, headstrong, adventurous, audacious, and cool as hell. He was so smart that Hope College gave Nic its top Chemistry student honor... despite being a History major, because being brilliant in his own major must not have been enough of a challenge.

We'd first met on a freezing cold D.C. sidewalk, while he was on a first date with a friend of mine.

"Holy f&%k!" he exclaimed, as snow flurries dotted the night. "You're TONY ALTIMORE. I know who you are... I went to Dow High, too. You're Greg's older brother... You were #20 on the football team and in Sig Chi at USC."

Amid evil glares from my friend who did NOT like my bantering with his date, I left them to it... and went home sulking that the hot boy from my hometown - who somehow already knew everything about me - was out with my friend instead.

Barely 15 minutes later, my phone rang. "Hey, it's Nic... So when are we going on a date?"

Surprised and delighted, I suggested the next night.

"Perfect," he said. "It's a date. Consider yourself booked."

Then, with a sly, suggestive smile that I could feel over the phone, he asked "So... as long as we're already going out tomorrow... why don't we just start right now?"

"Where are you?!?" I asked with a laugh.

"Downstairs," he sheepishly admitted. "In your lobby... I took a chance."

When I pointed out that he was supposed to still be on a date with my friend, the response was classic Nic:

"Eh," Nic laughed mischievously, "He'll get over it."

"Besides," Nic added, "I pretended to go down into the Metro before doubling back."

[ Spoiler: My friend was NOT fooled, and he did NOT get over it... Oops. ]

Less than two days later, Nic decided that we should be boyfriends, distant oceans be damned.

I'll never know how he knew everything about me before we met, but he'd picked me, and I never stood a chance. He'd decided on us before I even knew who he was... but he was right, and we somehow made 1+1=10... although he'd insist that I change it to say 1+1="20."

We were practically kids back then, but it felt like anything was possible. The future felt limitless. "When you're here [in the USA]," he proclaimed, "You're MINE."

The last time I saw Nic in person, as I wrapped up a trip home from abroad, I was running late (thanks to us both), and he hurriedly bundled me into an airport-bound cab, off to USC's bowl game before heading back overseas.

"Don't forget me, 20," he grinned, then added as the taxi hit the gas, "All right boyfriend... go win the National Championship!"

I'll never forget that last smile, watching him fade into the distance as the cab turned from P Street onto the Parkway.

From the night we met until the day Nic died, my beloved USC Trojans never lost a regular season football game. We won every Heisman Trophy and - fittingly - we were undefeated with Nic in my life.

Immediately after he died - and before I even knew he was gone - #1 USC was stunned in defeat by unranked Oregon State, and we haven't won a title since.

Nic was an Eagle Scout, and he would have been such a great dad. I still talk to his amazing mom all the time, and nobody could dream up a better mother-in-law.

One cloudy day, shortly after my dad died, I looked up at the sky and we made a deal.

"You take care of my dad," I said aloud, "and I'll take care of your mom."

Right then, the clouds parted and the sun shone through, just as bright as his smile always had been. I think that was a "Yes."

(Although - side note - my dad is probably STILL making Nic run heavenly wind sprints as punishment for Coach Altimore having died without a grandbaby... ha)

If any of you are still carrying weight about that tragic Tuesday, I know that Nic would demand that we set it down tonight, and he'd insist that 20 years is too long for the guilt and grief over what any of us should have done differently.

I think that grief and imagination both use the same muscles in our minds, and I know that Nic would rather we imagine a better world with him in it than to be sad about this one where we miss him so much, so I will raise a glass this evening to who he was and how he impacted us all, and then I'll dream tonight of who he should have been today in a better life or with another chance.

Last night, as I was feeling sad, Nic's amazing mom wisely reminded me that today "is a celebration of Nic's life, not an anniversary of the end of it."

So, in Nic's honor... Do me a favor today, everybody:

Call somebody that you haven't talked to in a while just to say hi... You never know who needs it.

And, if you're ever having a crisis, please know that we all love you, we care about you, and we want you with us forever. You're not alone... and you never know who's already on a plane back to you.

We miss you, bud... and you'll never be forgotten. Take care of my Dad up there, and I can't wait to hug you again someday.

Always your #20,
Tony

In loving memory of
Nicolas James Grzegorczyk
1982-2006

All honor to his name.
❤️

Anti-24 team playoff whining misses the point:
@ReceDavis: "Boo hoo... will you be excited about Oct 5th?"

Yes, Rece... Not everybody is UGA.

Oct 5th will matter 100x more for 50+ teams in a 24 team playoff, even if UGA vs. Bama loser gets a mulligan.

That's good for CFB.

I strongly disagree:
USC + UCLA made their own decisions to move confs in both 1957 and 2022

'57 PCC + '23 Pac both ineptly then took ZERO actions to patch the holes, resulting in UW later following USC + UCLA to new confs

PCC + Pac have only themselves to blame for their fate

END OF AN ERA?
Did we strike midnight for Cinderella?

Not enough focus is on the consolidation of power and success in the Big Dance this year.

With 2/3 of Sweet 16 from the P2, and 100% from P4 + Big East, we see the winds of change in front of us...

Even worse: Since 1966, only ONE team outside those 5 confs has won a title: Tark's (semi-pro) UNLV team in 1990.