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As we stood near the gate talking about Friday's win and post-game celebration, an elderly man with salt-and-pepper hair approached Anderson in Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport and shook his hand.
''Which one are you?'' the man said while flashing a grin as wide as Anderson. It's easy to spot an Ohio State football player when he stands 6-foot-4, weighs 290 pounds, is wearing a gray Ohio State football T-shirt and has his biceps and elbows covered with cuts and bruises.
''I'm Tim Anderson.''
''Thank you,'' the man said. ''You don't know what this means to me.''
Eventually others joined the conversation, like another man from Ohio who introduced his daughter. Anderson just grinned and said hello to both.
And so it is with an entire Buckeye Nation. Fans both young and old, both men and women, both alumni and those who just grew up watching Ohio State on fall Saturdays. This was their opportunity to touch greatness, to converse with a national champion, to take 30 seconds and physically show their appreciation to one of the largest and strongest players on the team.
Before the informal appreciation banquet commenced, I asked Anderson what had happened with Miami center Brett Romberg, who spent all week talking about how he would pinch Anderson's back side and do everything he could to make Anderson lose his focus.
''Nothing,'' Anderson said. ''He never tried anything. After the game I ran up to him and jokingly said ÔHey what happened to grabbing my butt?' So he smiled and reached around and pinched my butt and I pinched his back.''
Romberg was too busy getting his kicked by Anderson and fellow tackle Kenny Peterson to worry about any pinching and grabbing.
''Oh I can't say that,'' Anderson laughed.
When we boarded the plane, he was immediately disappointed because he was told he'd be sitting in an emergency exit row. And when you're 6-4 and 290 pounds, every extra inch helps. But instead, Anderson was wedged into the 16th row with the rest of us cattle who fly coach.
His disappointment quickly subsided, however, when he headed for his seat and was greeted by 80 percent of a plane covered in Scarlet and Gray. Fans immediately started applauding and Anderson just waived a smiled, a defensive tackle finally hearing his own set of applause.
''Go Bucks!'' Anderson shouted and the plane erupted again.
Anderson probably doesn't comprehend yet what Friday's win meant to this state. Like the rest of his teammates, that probably won't set in for another few years, when his time in Columbus is done and he's moved on to other things in life.
Before Friday's win, the 1968 team was viewed as a set of gods. Whenever great Buckeyes teams from the past were brought up, it began with the last team crowned a national champion. And 1968 was the last time Ohio State could truly call itself a champion.
Until now.
Just ask the defensive tackle who got his own standing ovation.
jlloyd@morningjournal.com
