The Big Game

And a big game it was. For those of you who were in a hole on Saturday evening, the Georgia vs. Alabama was a hot one! 4 quarters of ever-so-close play followed by one very quick overtime resulting in a huge Georgia Bulldog win! As I posted before, Karen and I were fortunate enough to get tickets to the game. This was our first experience at Bryant-Denny Stadium, or any other stadium other than Sanford Stadium (or Doak-Campbell Stadium [FSU] back in high school). It was quite an interesting experience to say the least, not only to be in a place with such a football heritage, but to be in the minority, rooting for the opposite (and might I add winning) team. Our seats were on the 20 yard-line on the west end, which basically means that we were surrounded by Alabama fans. There were a few Georgia fans above us, and below us, sprinkled throughout, but we were vastly outnumbered. I'll never forget the guy who sat in front of us. Right after Georgia scored on their first drive of the game, Karen and I politely went crazy, and the guy in front of us turned around with the worst look on his face...as if to say.....well I can't say what the look was as if to say, so use your imagination. All in all the Alabama fans were cordial enough to us, and even congratulated us after the game. However, there are a few observations I'd like to make about Alabama fans in general (*please note that I use in general, so as to identify that these observations aren't applied to every Alabama fan, just the ones we sat around on Saturday).

1. Alabama fans take their football very seriously. They do have a unique history, what with Bear Bryant and what not, but come on, every school (at least SEC school) has a place in football history in some way or another (well maybe not Vanderbilt...). I appreciate their place in that history, but we don't have to go overboard with it.

2. Alabama fans shout "Roll Tide Roll" to every thing. "Sweet Home Alabama" and some other song by the group Alabama (note the connection) are two of the songs that we heard on Saturday accompanied in specific parts by a loud and collective shout of the slightly overused war cry. And by slightly overused I mean utterly obnoxious. If I hear "Roll Tide Roll" one more time I think I'm gonna either throw up or hit somebody.

3. Alabama fans are much like the tide in their fanship. When things are good, they are extremely loud (tide in). When things are bad, you could hear a pin drop (tide...out). Seriously, the first half was deafening. However, after one tiny touchdown run in the first quarter, and everybody seemed to immediately pout. This was probably magnified by the fact that we were the only ones cheering when Georgia did something good. You know that is a really odd feeling, almost like I should have apologized for cheering....but I didn't. And you should have heard it when the winning touchdown was scored...I mean it's like someone just turned the mute on a TV. They were shocked, and Karen and I were watching for a replay to make sure we really did scored. It wasn't until the guy next to me said "Welp, that's the game folks" did I really realize we had won. I mean I thought he caught it, but I wasn't close enough to tell if he was inbounds or what. So anyway, when we did finally discover we won, we jumped up and down and clapped.....in what seemed like an empty stadium (sound wise anyway). It was odd, and I felt kinda bad......so I didn't prolong my own celebration. Karen and I both decided that we still feel a little celebration deprived!

4. Alabama fans feel a close connection between themselves and their quarterback....so much that they are on a first name....nay...initial only basis with the guy. The constantly were shouting "Come on JP!" or shouting a bemoaning "John Parker" (for those of you who don't know, the Tide's quarterback's name is John Parker Wilson). Though I know our quarterback's name is Matthew Stafford, you don't hear me yelling "Hey, great job Matty boy!" Nope....it's just Stafford in my vocabulary!

5. Alabama fans will never give a coach a break, due in large part to their continued worship of Bear Bryant. If I heard the Bear's name mentioned once, I heard it a thousand times.....followed by something like "he's still here...in spirit" or "he's the best coach that ever breathed a breath of air" or "blah blah blah blah blah".....because I just had to start tuning it out. A great coach he was...but not God! Poor Sabin, he may do some great things there, but if it is short of a National Championship within the next three years, he can forget it. He's gone! They won't be satisfied!

6. Alabama fans are surprisingly polite....at least in our section. Save the one ugly look we got, no one threw anything at us, yelled obscenities, or beat us up! This is a good thing! And as I mentioned before we got congratulated by several pouting Alabama fans. Of course there were those who threw things at our players, but I have a feeling those weren't adults!

7. Alabama fans are rather whiny. This may be based on the one guy who sat next to me and said over and over in a nasally cry "Come on BAMA". Hey dude, get a tissue and stop using my sleeve. Everything is gonna be alright I promise.

8. Alabama game traffic is.......what's the word........HORRIBLE!!!! There was an estimated 125, 000 people in and around the game (93,000 ticket holders, 30,000 other lurkers who found joy in sitting outside the stadium......maybe they don't have a house...with air conditioning, and a comfy chair like I do!?!?!) We got in our car at 11:15 (giving 20 minutes for some of the traffic to clear out) and got home at 3:30 a.m. What on any other day is a 2 and 1/2 hour drive took us 4 hours and 15 minutes. Not really interested in doing that again. For the record, I still made it to church at 6:30 a.m. lead 2 services in musical worship, and then crashed on my couch for literally the rest of the day.

9. Alabama is a place where everyone should attend a game at least once. If, for at least, no other reason than to prove or disprove my assessment. It really was a cool place to be! It is a neat stadium, and it is always interesting to see how different teams and fans present their fanfare!

In conclusion, I'd just like to say HOW BOUT THEM DAWGS!!!!!!!!!!!!

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