Roll Tide Roll!!

I have lived in Tennessee my entire life. Having said that, look closely at the shirt I am wearing in this picture. That's right, I pull for the University of Alabama Crimson Tide. The vast majority of my family and friends are University of Tennessee fans. Some because they went to school there. Some because they have family who went to school there. But mostly it's because they live in Tennessee and by God they bleed Orange! Because of this most of them cannot figure out why I pull for the Tide.

Well, I'll tell ya. Twelve National Championships, 21 SEC championships and the greatest football coach of all time, Paul "Bear" Bryant. That and they routinely kick the crap out of UT. This makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Why? Look at the picture to the right. Notice I am wearing a Vanderbilt wind breaker. My Grandfather, Father and Uncle all went o Vandy and I grew up in the stands watching them find new ways to lose games. Add on top of that all the obnoxious orange and white that holds my beloved state captive year 'round and it makes for one pissed off young sports fan. I endured many, many years of ridicule from classmates as well as people on the street for being a Vandy fan. Luckily for me I had family in Alabama who had opened my eyes to the crimson and white years earlier. So anytime a self-righteous UT fan started giving me crap for my Vandy t-shirt I would ask them when how long it had been since they beat the Tide. This coupled with insults about graduation rates and national collegiate ranking did not earn me very many new friends.

Years rolled by and I got older but my love for College Football only grew.

That's me on New Year's Day 1992. I was 17-years-old and just a few months from graduation. I remember that New Year's pretty vividly. Not for the football per se (although I do seem to remember watching UT blow a second half lead to Penn State that was funny to watch) but more for being around good friends and knowing that life was about to change. It was a good year. Plus I discovered Jenga that day. Many drunken nights trying to pull little blocks out from under other blocks followed in the years to come.

The best thing about that year was my Tide won it's twelfth National Championship in the Sugar Bowl against the hated Miami Hurricanes. I'm sure Gino Torretta probably still has nightmares about that Alabama defensive line.

For the next seven years Alabama's fortune wained and it got down right ugly in the mid-90's with recruiting violations and losing several games in a row to hated rivals. But things have turned around since Nick Saban came to Tuscaloosa and this year looks to be a big step toward a return to the top of the polls. It should be an interesting Fall. Roll Tide, Roll!!