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I have to say my brother-in-law has all the luck. He went from working for a Arena football team to getting a job with the Tampa Bay Bucs when Chucky signed on. He was there when the Bucs won the Superbowl and has a Superbowl Ring to show for it. When the Bucs played the All-Stars he went to Japan with them, and now this. President Bush attended a fundraiser across the street from where the Bucs practice and guess who got to shake his hand? That's right, my brother-in-law!!! I am SO jealous!! So here's his story and the pic.
"Back on Sept 21st President Bush came to Tampa for a fundraiser lunch for someone here at Raymond James Stadium. Our facility is just across the street (as you see in the back ground of the attached picture).
I am just about as far from a political person as you can be, but when I heard the news that the President was going to visit I was excited about the opportunity to meet what many refer to as the leader of the free world, and like him or not there have only been 43 people in the history of our country to hold the position he does, and who have to deal with the issues he does.
They tried to keep it a secret that he was coming, but the person who really let the cat out of the bag was Coach Gruden in the morning meeting. I wasn't at the meeting, but our kicker came in the equipment room and asked who I thought Coach Gruden was talking about when he told the team "we are going to have a very special visitor this afternoon". I put 2 and 2 together after remembering the news reports about the visit to RJS and possible traffic tie-ups for him.
Once practice was over, they called everyone up and told us to just hang out on the field for a few minutes while we waited for the visitor. The next thing we saw were two men dressed in all black on the roof of our building. Everyone new they were snipers and joked about not making any sudden moves.
A few minutes later the motorcade arrived and President Bush joined everyone on the practice field. Coach Gruden asked him to say a few words, and (no disrespect intended) you could tell he didn't have anything prepared. He just thanked the players for doing the things they do in the community and told them to keep working hard, that "I've been 0-2 before". It really seemed he was as excited as most of us were to be there. At this point he took the time to personally greet all the players, asking questions about where they were from and where they went to school. I was very impressed that he took as much time as he did with each individual, and while I was hoping to get a picture with him, I was happy enough to shake his hand and introduce myself.
I stood and watched for a few more minutes, but then people started heading in, so I thought he'd be leaving soon, and headed inside myself. As we walked off the field, I commented to Chris Simms that he should have had the President sign the football he had, but Chris said he thought it was cool enough to have played catch with him for a few minutes.
When we got inside, he flipped me the football and said there it is...George Bush actually played catch with that football. I went inside and told our seamstress (Linda) the same thing. Her reply was "WHAT??? George Bush is HERE???" I said yeah, you didn't know? Let's go out back real quick. I bet you can at least see him before he takes off.
So back out we went. At this point it was mostly employees still out there with him, and we just stood behind the endzone of the field they were on. I told Linda to come forward a few steps so she could see the snipers on the roof. As we did that, the group started making it's way toward the motorcade. We were a good 20 yards away when the President stopped, turned toward us, and motioned with his finger and said "come here" to Linda. This freaked her out of course as she said "Who? Me??" and I said yeah, get over there. Well, he gave her a big hug and asked what she did, and they talked about that for a minute before taking photos with her.
She went from not knowing he was there to getting a hug, chatting with him and taking pictures in about 3 minute span.
At that point people (including me) realized this was their last chance, so he must have taken 5-6 more photos and signed 5-6 autographs before I stuck my head in and asked if we could take a picture. As I said he was extremely accommodating to everyone. I think every single person who works there had some type of exchange with him if they wanted to. To my surprise, his visit lasted nearly an hour. Of course, there were some who let politics get in the way and told others...I don't want to meet him, etc. Their loss in my opinion.
It was an interesting experience to see everything from the helicopters flying around his motorcade, to the snipers on the roof, and of course the secret service who were all over the place (including one in the picture behind us to the left - that is Doug Williams behind us to the right). I don't know many people who have had the opportunity to meet the President in their lives (much less in such an informal setting), so I was glad I got the chance."
