Roll Tide Roll

It is all about the crystal.  Tonight is the BCS Championship Game with Number 1 Notre Dame taking on Number 2 Alabama.  I have heard so much about it all week.  Many of my non-Alabama friends are sporting Notre Dame attire this week and there is a lot of trash mouthing going on on Facebook.  Any of you who know me know that I am not a football fan and for your information went to both SEC schools in Alabama.  I have degrees from both Auburn and Alabama....I love Sanford Hall at Auburn as much as I love Denny Chimes in Tuscaloosa.  The key here is that I love Alabama....the state.  I will be pulling for Alabama tonight because a win represents us....Alabamians.  It is a win for the SEC and a win for the state.  I have never lived anywhere where football is so important.  I have seen friendships lost over the wearing of a T-shirt.  I mean....come on!  Rick Bragg helped me out with the concept of the southern obsession to football...especially SEC football.  It is life blood here.  There is something about being southern.  As southerners it is a fact that snapping turtles bite,  snakes are used to make it rain sometimes, deer season is reason to take off from work, and owning a gun is a right.  We talk slow, fed the belief that football is all there is, and even put Coca-Cola in baby bottles from time to time....or better yet....the table wine of the south, sweet tea!  We tell jokes about each team....the same joke...just different team.....it depends on who you are for.  I remember my first year at BRHS when the students wanted to get a feel for me and aks me who I pulled for.  I am from the south....but South Florida.....and I did not have a clue what they were talking about.  I have since learned.   You have to know football to be southern.  You have to know the players by names, know the coaches, know every coach there has ever been at your institution....that is where I lose out.  I can't tell you  much.  I have heard Gene Stallings speak twice and was so impressed by him.  The "Bear" wore big shoes to fill.  There have been some coaches who were easy on the eye....but I don't remember their names.  The rivalries in the south are amazing!  Here it is a birthright.  Children grow up in households that root for an SEC team.  Personally.....I think it is sad that we pay coaches what we pay them.  It just goes to show you that athletics rule and academia is for fools.  I have to admit though....that crystal trophy is gorgeous.  I would love to keep it in the state of Alabama forever.  So with my rambling over....Roll Tide Roll and bring us home the crystal!

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