What Was Life Like the Last Time Florida Beat Florida State In The Swamp?
"Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you, Imma let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time."
Taylor Swift had just accepted her award at the MTV VMA for Best Female Video. Kanye West took the stage during her acceptance speech. He snatched the mic and infamously announced that quote.
Two months later, the Florida Gators beat the Florida State Seminoles in football in Gainesville. It was quarterback Tim Tebow's last game in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Head coach Urban Meyer and the Gators routed FSU that day 37-10.
And Gator fans couldn't post pictures from the game to Instagram. Why? It didn't exist yet.
It's hard to believe, but that was the last time that a home Florida crowd has enjoyed a win against the Seminoles in their own stadium. What was life like back in November of 2009? What else was going on in the world outside of football? Let's look back:
President Barack Obama was in his first term as president of the United States. He had been sworn into office earlier that year. Maybe even wilder than that, is Obama still had a full head of dark hair then.
That is crazy to think about, obviously, but even crazier to think about is when that game was played, it had been less than a calendar year that GEORGE W. BUSH was in office.
Despite the infamous mic snatch from Swift, West would go on in December to win male artist of the year. The November before, in 2008, he released his album 808s and Heartbreak, which became his third No. 1 release in a row on the Billboard 200.
Drake's latest album out at the time was So Far Gone. Lil Wayne had released Tha Carter III the year before and would release Rebirth the year after.
On the movie front, Slumdog Millionaire won best picture that year. Heath Ledger, who had already passed away, won best supporting actor for his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight.
The top grossing movie of 2009 was Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. This was back in the glory days of Transformers, when Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox ran the show. The Hannah Montana movie released that year as well.
This was also the year that celebrity after celebrity died over the summer. June alone claimed Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Billy Mays and Ed McMahon. July claimed Steve McNair, Robert McNamara and Walter Cronkite.
What about in football? The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals in the Super Bowl earlier that year. As far as that football season, the New Orleans Saints were a few months away from their first Super Bowl, when they beat the Indianapolis Colts in February of 2010.
In college, Florida was the defending national champion. But a blowout loss to Alabama following this FSU game ended any hopes of a repeat. The Crimson Tide won their first title under Nick Saban that year, when they went on to beat Texas in the title game 37-21.
The Los Angeles Lakers had defeated the Orlando Magic in the NBA Finals that summer, and Dwight Howard is still collecting checks off that magical season. In college, the North Carolina Tar Heels were the defending national champions after destroying the Michigan State Spartans in the title game 89-72.
It is wild to think Florida hasn't beaten Florida State in Gainesville in a decade. It is even more wild to think of everything that went on that year. Hopefully, for Gator fans, they can post a win against the Seminoles in their own stadium on Instagram this year for the first time.
