[gatortalk] RE: [gatornews] [OrlSentinel]

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:57:59 -0700

Hope the players didn't take anything valuable up there.  I hear there are thieves throughout that big white building with the huge white dome on top.  And that big white house down Pennsylvania avenue - won't be out done! 
 
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [gatornews] [OrlSentinel]
From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, April 23, 2009 3:52 pm
To: [email protected]

Lawmakers greet champion Gators before White House reception with President Obama


Mark Matthews |Sentinel Staff Writer
2:31 PM EDT, April 23, 2009
WASHINGTON - The Capitol Hill crowd isn't known for its boisterous parties, but lawmakers and staffers today mobbed a reception hall at the Library of Congress to cheer the Florida Gators hours before the defending national football champions were to visit the White House.

Congressional aides arrived with helmets, footballs and programs to sign and U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow, even did the gator chomp as soon as he arrived.

"It's huge man. But it's getting kind of old. Another year, another championship," said Putnam, who graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in economics. "it's great that, for a few hours, that the nation's capitol is the capitol of Gators nation."

Another lawmaker, U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala, presented the team with a flag that he flew over the capitol on Jan. 8 – the day that the Gators beat the Oklahoma Sooners 24-14. "That shows how much confidence I had that the Gators would win," he said.

As for the players, they said the experience wasn't too much different than meeting other fans, except for the Washington crowd wore more ties. "It's the same, but different attire. But they're still Gator nation," said running back Jeff Demps.

But he compared the upcoming experience of meeting President Obama to the nerves before a game. "When you're suiting up to play, you're fired up [and] I'm fired up to see President Obama. It's kind of like the same feeling," said the rising sophomore who attended South Lake High School.

Meanwhile, offensive lineman Corey Hobbs, said the Washington trip was piquing his interest in politics and that he was hoping to get involved in student government this summer. "I'd like to have a say in the future," said Hobbs, of Oviedo, who also hopes to go to law school.


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