A Quick Chat With ... Jeb Blazevich (Part 2)
November 18, 2016 | Football
Nov. 18, 2016
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
This is part two of my two-part Q&A with Georgia tight end Jeb Blazevich. This is the first two-parter we've ever done here, but chatting with Jeb was just too fun and interesting to edit out much. You can find part one here: Jeb Part One.
As I wrote in part one, it makes me very happy that Blazevich is only a junior because that means I'll get to do another one of these with him next year. Here in part two we discuss Thanksgiving meals, great gifts and more:
Frierson: What's the most overrated part of the traditional Thanksgiving meal?
Blazevich: I like to think of myself as a patriot and I might get torn down for this, but I'm going to say the turkey. I'd rather have a big ole steak. My brothers and I have been lobbying for that for forever. My dad always cooks a great smoked turkey, but I want some steak, you know?
Frierson: What's the most underrated part of the traditional Thanksgiving spread?
Blazevich: Did y'all have, like, special biscuits that somebody would make?
Frierson: I don't remember special biscuits.
Blazevich: My mom would make these awesome biscuits. In my family, it's the biscuits my mom makes. ... They're not your tradition biscuit, they're like a dinner roll kind of biscuit thing. I think it's angel biscuits, I think that's what they're called, and they're just amazing.
She'd cook so many of them and you'd get a little bit of mashed potatoes, a little bit of everything else and a lot of angel biscuits.
Frierson: Is there anything in them or are they just soft and tasty?
Blazevich: I think it's just soft and tasty. It's like your best dinner roll out of a restaurant times three -- and it's from your mom so it's make with love. You can taste the love.
Frierson: What's the best gift you've ever received?
Blazevich: My girlfriend gave me a helicopter ride for my birthday. It was like the first big present she gave me -- she's probably my favorite gift, that God gave me. She gave me a helicopter ride and I didn't ask for it, I think I just said something a while ago.
She knew I really wanted to go, but I wasn't hinting or anything. She made it a surprise and we pulled up to the airport and I was oblivious. I was like, I don't know where we are and she makes fun of me for that. I was like, "Are we going up there?" as I pointed to the sky, and she said "Yeah," and I just started freaking out. I couldn't stop smiling and it was the coolest thing.
Frierson: That is awesome. So did you up the ante the next time you got her something?
Blazevich: For Christmas I gave her a hot air balloon ride. That's the cool part, with both of these gifts we both went on them and both enjoyed them. We woke up at 3 in the morning and drove up to Asheville, did that and drove back the same day. It was awesome.
Frierson: It seems to me your gift was slightly better because a hot air balloon ride up in the mountains would be a little more picturesque than a helicopter ride over the Atlanta area.
Blazevich: On the helicopter ride we went over around Lake Hartwell and that was really cool. The thing is, I'd never been in a helicopter and I'd always wanted to be in one.
Frierson: Were you nervous for either one of them?
Blazevich: The hot air balloon ride I was because that basket was right about here [waist high] and the burner was right here [head height on his 6-foot-5 frame] and I'm already going bald, so something burning on my head, I was like, I've got to save these.
Frierson: There's technically a pilot in a hot air balloon, but not in the same way there is in a helicopter. It seems like the wind is really the pilot in a hot air balloon.
Blazevich: Exactly. When we were up there the pilot was talking and she was like, if we land in this field they came at us with guns before, so let's hope we don't land in this field. I was like, love that; how am I going to have to evade this situation.
Frierson: Without giving anything away, are y'all continuing to up the ante on these gifts? Is one of those Richard Branson trips into space going to happen at some point?
Blazevich: We've started to settle a little bit, but I will say, and I think she's noticed this, I'm saving up for a really, really, really big gift. I think that's the next big gift for us.
Frierson: That's a good tease to end on.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
