Hanging with Boise State? The best assignment yet

	Boise State running back Ian Johnson capped his game-winning two-point conversion with a marriage proposal. Steve Grayson/WireImage
	Best Game I've Ever Seen RELATED: Click here to read all the essays REACT: What's the best game you've ever seen?

By Arash Markazi

Editor's note: We asked SI.com writers to share their memories from the best game they've ever seen. Here are their stories:

As I wedged into a tight middle seat on a surprisingly full Southwest flight in the wee hours of the morning after Christmas last year, I kept wondering what I did to get this godforsaken assignment. Why was I being sent away from my home in Los Angeles during the holidays when the Rose Bowl was right around the corner? I kept thinking I must have done one too many USC stories to prevent me from covering its last game of the season, against Michigan.

That was the only conclusion I could come to as I received my sentence: a week-long assignment in the desert with the Boise State football team as it prepared for the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma.

By the time I pulled up to the Scottsdale Plaza Resort, where the Broncos were staying, I was intent on making the best of the situation. Who would have guessed I was walking into the best assignment of my career?

For the next seven days, I lived and breathed Boise State football. I didn't just observe the team, I was embedded with it. I was handed a team bowl manual soon after walking into the hotel and was treated like any orange-and-blue-clad staffer. I attended meetings and practices just like everyone else. Whatever they did, I did. Wherever they went, I went.

After a couple days, I began to know the players well. I'd laugh at backup quarterback Nick Lomax as he practiced his goofy version of "Statue of Liberty" play, tease wide receiver Jerard Rabb for not being able to score during those ridiculous "Circus" drills, and wonder if running back Ian Johnson would really follow through on a suggestion from a Fiesta Bowl official and propose on the field to his girlfriend -- head cheerleader Chrissy Popadics -- if the Broncos won the game.

When New Year's Day finally rolled around, the game was almost an afterthought in my mind. Even if it turned out to be a blowout, the stories I had accumulated during my time with the team were enough to write a book. But like everything else during that magical week, the result went above and beyond my wildest dreams.

The Fiesta Bowl turned out to be one of the greatest college football games ever played, culminating with the wildest finale in bowl-game history. I still have to put a question mark after every sentence that describes the conclusion of that game. A fourth-down, hook-and-lateral touchdown pass to tie the game at the end of regulation? A fourth-down, halfback option pass to tie it in overtime? A do-or-die Statue of Liberty two-point conversion run to win the game? The star player proposing to the captain of the cheerleading squad after crossing the goal line?

Not only was I there for every improbable play, I also stood behind head coach Chris Peterson and heard him relay every gutsy call. Whenever I watch highlights of the game, I can still hear Peterson say, "Let's fake 'em out" before calling the halfback pass, then quickly turning around and screaming "Statue!" for the game-winner.

Seven months later, I'm still reminded of that game every so often when I get a call from the 208 area code or an e-mail from a former player planning a trip to Los Angeles. As Johnson would later tell me, "You aren't just part of the story. You're part of the family now."

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