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I’m not a big football fan, but I’m slowly being converted by Kate and my in-laws to monitor Alabama football. I’m a good wife…
Of course the Rolltide brigade was here in Durham a couple of weekends ago to kick Duke’s *ss. Predicted of course, but it was amazing to see all of the ‘Bama fans RV and drive their way here to take over the city. They were EVERYWHERE.
We went to the Carolina Ale House, a local sports bar, and almost everyone in our section was an Alabama fan. The Ale House even had a large banner outside offering shuttle service to the game.
Alabama fans were boistrous and friendly. We watched the local news coverage, which focused on the RV farm that had sprouted up for the weekend. Now mind you, NC is in the South, but this was the opportunity for our media to find the most inarticulate, overexcited redneck from the Deep South to feature on the air. Usually it’s the Northern media making fun of some of our ‘flavorful’ North Carolinians, so I guess it’s a media race to the bottom to make all Southerners look dumb or (crazy or both). Here you go, featured Alabama “guest” Cary Hill (he makes two appearances in the segment):
This week Alabama is playing the Gators. ROLLTIDE! (Was that convincing?)
Related:
* Today’s my opportunity to experience stereo Alabama football eruptions in my living room
10 Comments
football culture can be fun, Pamif you like to drink and shout and tailgate, college football culture can be nice. i don’t follow it anymore, but i have many fond memories of my college days; going to the game, parties before and after, cook offs…
no moreI followed both college and pro football for many years.
No more.
The increase in size, speed, and “winning is the only thing” culture seems to have led to more than just horrific injuries among football players – it has also shortened their lives.
I can no longer watch a spectacle that leads to premature death. I can no longer watch a “sport” that leads to crippling injuries among its star players. Read about all the former “stars” that have lost their mobility, lost short term memory, etc.
Talk to former football players about all the surgical procedures, joint replacements, chronic pain they suffer as a result of playing their “sport”.
I was a freshman at Syracuse when Jimmy Brown was a senior. I saw him play both College and pro football. Watching him helped me develop a love of the sport.
I think it’s very different today. Far too dangerous. Very strange that young men give up so much so some coach can be a “genius”, and get rich.
No more.
GO BIG BLUE!Kate has greater powers than I. Ten years (OK, 9 years, 10 months, 2 days) into this marriage and my wife still dreads the oncoming football season.
#3 Boise State 4-0 and comin’ for ya, Tide. Big Blue and Crimson Tide for a National Championship. Wouldn’t that be fun?
Way back in the day, I was a sophomore when they installed the first Smurf Turf in Boise. 1986. The year before, I had been on the cheerleading squad as a mascot. I had recorded a rap album about the football team, coincidentally titled “Ride the Tide”. Fave sample lyric: “It’s football time and it’s very important and that doesn’t mean that it won’t get hard.”
And our football team sucked. We had a thirteen game losing streak to our rivals Idaho Vandals. They came in and put 60-something on us in our house.
So for us to be #3 in the country, twice on Sports Illustrated cover, and wrecking the BCS cartel system, is a bit of a mind trip for me.
hmmmAnd I always thought that red tide was a bad thing.
Which one is football?
uh-uh. . .next week the Tide travel to MY alma mater. . .and we’ll be waitin!GO COCKS!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
Hail to our colors of garnet and black
in Carolina pride have we
So Go Gamecocks Go FIGHT!
Drive for the goal FIGHT!
USC will win today!
GO COCKS
So let’s give a cheer
Carolina is here
The Fighting Gamecocks All The Way!
You just tell Kate I’ll be at home watching with my “you can’t lick our COCKS” tee shirt on!
Not quite, Pam…“Rooooooooooooooooooooooooooooollllllllllllllllllll Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide!!!”
THAT is convincing.
I have to admit that living in Tuscaloosa for the last almost 2 years I have regained a certain affinity for The Tide. I did once ask my sister if it is a city ordinance that all businesses have the stylized “A” on their front door… it’s that prolific around here.
I did, however, lose sight and interest in college football when I moved to Dallas in 1985… then all over the Southeast in the 90′s: Greensboro, [BIG basketball town with the ACC(?) tournament being held there], Orlando and Roanoke. The “religiosity,” if you will, of football does not translate to other states as well as it is followed in Alabama with the Tide and that lesser university football program, Auburn. Mississippi [with Ole Miss and State] and Georgia [with UGA and Tech] are mere shadows of Footballism compared to Alabama.
But when you get right down to it: There’s very little Alabama, as a state, has going for it… The steel industry is shot, the [secondary] educational system is in the sewer, there are very few [any?] arts venues of any quality [OK, I'll give you the Shakepeare Festival in Montgomery... But how many folks are gonna hike from Huntsville or Muscle Shoals to Montgomery?], and, thanks to BP, even the “Redneck Riviera” of the Gulf Coast is threatened!
Let’s not forget our “illustrious” [read: IDIOT!] senators, Sessions and Shelby!
Tide Football is about the only thing we have to be proud of!
Equal Time for Iowahttp://www.pamshouseblend.com/…
I believe that both Alabama and Iowa have beaten Penn State this year – but Iowa has both full marriage euality and a legitimate gay rights law
MysteriesWhere did these people acquire all that big money for those sperm-whales-on-wheels?
And why, if they are so rich, are they still eating all of that junk food?
As a graduate of AuburnI guess I should be expected to make some kind of fuss about this. However, my basic reaction to my educational experience at Redneck U is one of deep gratitude that I got out alive.
And just think that in 2012Pam/Kate and myself will be going at it when Alabama plays Michigan to open the season.
Alabama is my second favorite college team, actually, but…the maize and Blue comes first, by far.
I don’t wanna throw the jinx on there but I’ll put my QB, Denard Robinson, up against stinkin’ Mark Ingram any day.