Texas’ Michael Taaffe recalls wild tale of sneaking into Cotton Bowl, getting thrown out during Texas-Oklahoma game

It’s somewhat heartwarming to learn that even in this day and age of heightened security, kids will do anything to see their heroes.

Texas safety Michael Taaffe told reporters about the lengths he went to as a high school sophomore in 2018 to sneak into the Cotton Bowl for the Texas-Oklahoma game. Not once, but twice!

“I was there, me and my buddy snuck onto the field,” Taaffe said Monday.

This wild tale seems almost too good to be true. And yet it’s totally believable if you’ve ever been to the State Fair of Texas and seen the lax security around the Cotton Bowl itself. It’s not exactly being guarded like Fort Knox.

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Mix the craziness of ESPN’s “College GameDay” and inject 100,000 fans — and thousands more who can’t get into the game — and it makes the perfect cauldron for chaos.

“It was an 11 a.m. kick, so you show up at like 4 a.m. to get front row of GameDay,” Taaffe said. “Well, you’re probably tired of standing after three hours. So 7 a.m. comes around, what are we going to do? Let’s just go to the field and see what's going on. Let’s watch warm-ups.

“And we were playing high school football, so we wanted to see what they did to warm up and if it married up with how we do it at Westlake,” he continued. “We don’t see anybody. Let’s just go on the field. And so we went on, and it worked until about right before kickoff, where I felt a grab on my neck. All right, here we go.”

Taaffe said his whole mission was to get Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger’s attention. Ehlinger also played at Westlake and was a family friend. Fair to say Ehlinger had plenty on his mind. That season, Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray was one of the most dangerous athletes in the nation. Both teams were girding for a shootout.

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“We watched Sam and all of them run out of the tunnel,” Taaffe said. “And then I felt a grab on my neck, and I got thrown out.”

Somehow, Taaffe said he and the friend got back into the stadium and went to their seats. “But yeah, we got thrown out of stadium,” he said. “So that was pretty awesome. I still remember College GameDay, having signs and all that stuff.”

Good thing Taaffe snuck back in. Ehlinger accounted for 386 total yards, and UT’s Cameron Dicker, the kicker, drilled a 40-yard field goal to seal a 48-45 victory in a heart-stopping finish.

Asked if someone could derail his attention this Saturday, Taaffe said, “Probably not, because I hope I have the same approach that Sam did. He was tunnel vision. They came out of the gate and they’re scoring on those guys like no other. So I hope I was like Sam to where it doesn't matter if it’s a family friend, it’s one of my best friends, I’m laser focused.”

Any words of advice for wanna-be rulebreakers?

“If they have any ideas, go in two hours early when the security is not looking, because that's how I did it,” Taaffe said. “But they got the best of me at the end of it.”