There’s a woman I see around town every so often that I call The Jeff Gordon Fan. She’s always got her Jeff Gordon hat on and her car is decked out with #24 stickers and decals. I notice her because it’s not every day, okay it’s really rare, to see someone in my neck of the woods who loves NASCAR — let alone one particular driver — so much and puts it all on display. I do have a couple JR Motorsports hats but I only wear them when I have the top down on my car. But I digress.
I’m telling you about The Jeff Gordon Fan because I received a copy of the new ESPN Inside Access: Jeff Gordon DVD. This special DVD features races, interviews and specials all about Jeff Gordon. This is precisely the kind of thing I would expect The Jeff Gordon Fan to have in her DVD collection. In fact she probably bought it the first day it came out.
ESPN Inside Access: Jeff Gordon allows you to view specific races from Jeff’s career. The races have been shortened to the most important parts which make them easier to digest. You’ve gotta watch the 1990 USAC Midgets race that Jeff won sporting the sweetest “Uncle Jesse” haircut. Actually for the entirety of the early ’90s Jeff and his then crew chief Ray Evernham caught the John Stamos circa Full House hairstyle fever.
My favorite piece in the collection has to be the SportsCentury biography. It included a lot of things that I hadn’t thought about in long time, mostly Jeff’s marriage and divorce from his first wife Brooke Sealy. For some reason when I think of Jeff and Brooke I think of this one Frito’s commercial they did way back when where he’s driving around on a lawn mower and she’s trimming hedges. I dunno, I guess it stuck with me ’cause you don’t see that many commercials that feature pro athletes with their real life family members, so when it happens I remember it. Anywho, that same commercial was in the SportsCentury piece, it was fun to see it again.
I didn’t know he allegedly had an affair with some model who later told her story to Playboy, so much for that squeaky clean good guy shtick.
I’m sure that’s not the kind of stuff the good people who put this DVD together had in mind for me to think about when watching it, but heck I’m not the biggest Jeff Gordon fan so that’s as good as it gets. But I can appreciate its quality, and I’m sure all of the diehard Jeff Gordon fans will enjoy its fun look into the career of a champion.
