The name alone says it all….
In the Great State of Alabama, there is nothing bigger…
In Alabama you have to make a choice…..
It’s one or the other…
We aren’t much for fence riders or folks on middle ground…..
And don’t give us that crap “how you like both teams”
You can’t, it’s impossible…
Saying that just makes you a wussy, or worse….
A damn yankee…
It’s the Alabama Crimson Tide and The Auburn Tigers
This weekend marriages will end….
Businesses will dissolve….
And the bonds of friendship forever broken…
All over this one game….
For those of you outside the state of Alabama….
or persons that may have been living under a rock for their entire adult life….
I will let you in on a “not so” little secret.
We don’t like each other very much
We tolerate each other most of the time throughout the year….
Our children will play together….
We attend Church and PTA meetings together…
On occasions we will attend weddings, funerals and even BBQ together..
But this week everything is different…
On the Sunday before the Iron Bowl…
I have seen parishioners move from their usual seats to the other side of the aisle….
until one side of the church is Tigers and the other Tide.
I have seen and heard a young preacher, who clearly wasn’t from Alabama…..
make mention that “people down here take their football too seriously…”
He and his family weren’t there the following Sunday……
presumably to preach at a place where they didn’t take their football “too seriously….”
I have taken my seat on one side of a school bus with a little crimson elephant pined to my shirt by a wonderful first grade teacher, while the Auburn kids took their place on the other side of the bus with a blue and orange “War Eagle” pined to their respective shirts and dresses.
We never miss an opportunity to make fun of each other either..
This game has had Bo and Joe and a Bear of a Man…..
It has had “One for the Thumb”
And Eleven in a row…….
It’s War Damn Eagle!
And…
Roll Tide Roll!
It has made simple terms meaningful like…
Punt Bama Punt!
And “The Kick”
It’s about Pat Sullivan to Terry Beasley
Freddie Kitchens to Dennis Riddle
Wrong way Bo….
And Coach breaking the record…
The Legends of this game live forever in the hearts of the respective fans
The wins are glorious and the losses are bitter as hell
Many people have asked me if I had a “Favorite” picture from my deployment last year
The answer is “Yes”, I do……
It’s about pride and bragging rights….
It’s about “us” against “them”
But it’s even deeper than that……
It’s so deep you can’t define it….
It’s just there right above the surface of your emotions lurking….
Reminding you even on Easter Sunday…
Beat Them….
Friday afternoon is not life or death…
This game is far more important than that
And for those people that may be reading this thinking we in Alabama….
Take our “football too seriously”…..
You might want to take your cue from that young preacher in my story above
and get out of town…This game isn’t for the weak of heart…
It is The Iron Bowl
Your Thanksgiving Picks will be out in the morning….
ROLL TIDE ROLL
MEB