A lot of things change when your team wins the national title. You get a giant trophy. You get a huge confetti party on national television. The way people describe your conference, your program, and even your state, changes. You can convince nearly 100,000 people, most of them paying, to attend one of your practices. And then, after all the t-shirts have been sold, the selfies snapped, and the stories told, you get to go to the White House to meet the president.
And so we went too.
The timing might seem a little strange, now that the spring game has come and gone and attention has now squarely focused on this coming season, with the three-headed quarterback race and offseason workouts. Some of the players in D.C today had already graduated, or were working out and preparing for the NFL Draft. Evan Spencer and Jeff Heuerman didn't seem to mind the change in their routine though. After all, how many times do you get to meet the president? They laughed, saying he gets priority.
If you play football at Ohio State, you probably learn to get over getting star-struck relatively quickly. You're regularly playing your home games in front of more than 100,000 screaming fans. Every one of your games is on national television, and after last season, including a run for the ages through Wisconsin, Alabama and Oregon, it's hard to imagine the stakes ever being any higher. But that's all football, and this is the White House, and even star athletes can get butterflies.
"You spend this time trying to think of something profound to say, but then he gets there and you're all like uh...uh...uh...hello Mr.President," said Spencer.
Spencer probably wasn't the only one who felt that way, and that's okay. Multiple fully grown adults were just as giddy and starstruck over a chance to meet the President of the United States.
Plus, just because the meeting involved the President of the United States and multiple university and political dignitaries didn't mean that it couldn't have a celebratory flair.
President Obama was loose and comfortable, joking about Ezekiel Elliott's sartorial choices, with a "nice of you to tuck in your shirt today" (Elliott responded by telling the president to get the NCAA shirt rule changes, to which Obama replied "look, I got you the Playoff, okay? I got other things to do now") , Joey Bosa's celebration move, and even the passion of Ohio State's fanbase, saying "I will say when you get 100,000 fans to show up to a practice, I think it's fair to say your fans are a little crazy". Not quite the level of an "alarming life balance" burn though.
Obama also decided to take some credit for the first College Football Playoff, while he had the chance. "The country got to enjoy its first-ever College Football Playoffs. And I will say it -- it was about time. I cannot claim full credit----I will point out that I pushed for a playoff system in 2008....So you're welcome, America. It was a great playoff."
The brief public visit wasn't the only event on the docket for Ohio State's D.C. trip. They visited the MLK Memorial earlier in the morning, ate lunch at a law firm, and headed to the Capitol building shortly after their presidential photo op. Not only is it a wonderful celebration of the team's excellent accomplishments, it serves as an powerful reminder of the world outside of football, something Ohio State prioritizes, with their Real Life Wednesdays program.
Now Ohio State's athletes can leave with memories that they can pass along to their children and grandchildren. And if they got a little tongue-tied when it came to what to see when the president came by, well, they can leave that part out.