Eight seconds

Author’s note: The title of this post does not refer to the 1994 movie about rodeo legend Lane Frost. Although in my opinion that was Luke Perry’s best, and come to think of it, only decent acting performance.

Well, my weekend involved golf and football. Hmm, I think I’m beginning to notice a trend here. Not that I’m complaining. It’s much better than that Gilmore Girls phase I went thru.

Saturday I was in my happy place, as Renee refers to it, Tuscaloosa. That really is my happy place. I look forward to football season from January to August. And even during the season, I’m looking forward to watching the next game either in person or on TV.

This weekend, my beloved Crimson Tide took on their first ranked opponent of the young season, the highly touted Hogs of Arkansas. The game got off to a rousing start for those clad in Crimson, as Bama jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the 1st quarter.

But as the sun set on Tuscaloosa and the first touches of autumn coolness spread across the night, the tide turned. Thanks in part to three turnovers, a 31-10 lead quickly evaporated and then became a 38-31 deficit.

The once jubliant crowd was stunned and growing more concerned by the second as the clock ticked under 5 minutes to play. Then, the Tide turned.

A field goal cut the lead to 38-34. That was followed by a defensive stand which gave Bama the ball back with only 2:13 to play, 73 yards from the end zone, and with no timeouts remaining.

The final drive was tense, exciting, and a thing of beauty. When the final touchdown catch was secured, only eight seconds remained on the clock. And I guess the old stadium was as loud as I’ve ever heard her.

I assume the band played the fight song like they do after every score. But I couldn’t say for sure.

Final score: Alabama 41, Arkansas 38.

We stopped off at a convenience store after the game to load up on junk food for the two hour drive home. The cashier was helping an older man in front of us. As she completed the transaction she told him to have a good night.

In a friendly Southern drawl, he replied dryly and sincerely, “I’ve already had one.”

I could tell he’d been in his happy place, too.

“From Carolina down to Georgia, smell the jasmine and magnolia. Sleepy sweet home Alabama, Roll Tide Roll…”

September Saturdays

Football season starts today! In celebration–and also thanks to Labor Day–I’m in the midst of a four-day weekend. By the way, how long does a weekend have to be before it stops becoming a weekend? I mean, if I took Tuesday off as well, would that be a five-day weekend? At some point, don’t you just have to say you took a week off?

Football doesn’t signal the beginning of Fall, but serves more as a harbinger of it. Summer is slowly tiring. The weather is still hot, but the days are growing shorter. Today, we’ll be in shorts and short sleeves. But soon, we’ll be in jeans and long sleeves, the familiar autumn chill evoking thoughts and memories and feelings as only it can.

Today the population of Tuscaloosa will swell from 80,000 to 180,000 or more. People will arrive hours before kickoff. Some arrived days in advance. The streets will be buzzing with activity, the campus redolent with the smell of barbecue and burgers.

The stadium will be packed in anticipation not just of a new season, but of a new coach and a new era, hopefully one that awakens feelings and memories of an earlier time.

They’ll strike up the band and the players will run onto the field, a sea of crimson spreading across the lush green. Both occurrences will elicit cheers from the crowd while at the same time bringing chill bumps to many in attendance.

There will be sons and daughters attending their very first game, and others who haven’t missed a game in years. They’ll sit next to each other, young and young at heart, decked out in their crimson, gray, and white, donning their houndstooth caps.

But all will share the same burning hope and desire. To watch the Tide roll on a Saturday evening in Tuscaloosa.

“Well, there’s a football in the air, across a leaf blown field. Yeah, and there’s your first car on the road, and the girl you’d steal…”

Joe Namath, Mom, & Existential Questions

28 days until the first Alabama football game!

I suppose I have reached the point in my life where I have begun to ask myself certain questions. What is life? What is real? Who am I? How in the world is Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show still on the air?

While we may never know the answer to that last one, today I want to focus on the Who Am I question. Or more precisely, why am I the way I am?

I have written before about my love for Crimson Tide football. And while I know this trait largely comes directly from my mother, I’ve never known where she got it. So this week I decided to ask her. Why does she love Alabama football, and who did she get it from?

Here, to the best of my recollection, is her answer in her words:

“I don’t know. The earliest memory I have is watching them when Joe Namath was quarterback. I remember one year we lost to Tennessee and it tore me up. I was down in the floor crying and I remember Momma saying, ‘Child, you don’t need to let a football game affect you like that. Win or lose, the sun’s gonna come up tomorrow.’

Sunday morning when I woke up, it was pouring down rain. And I knew then the sun doesn’t come up when Alabama loses.”

Indeed.

Oh, I would have asked her the Jimmy Kimmel question as well, but I’m pretty sure her answer would have been, “Jimmy who?” Mom flips back and forth between Letterman and Leno, and only knows Craig Ferguson as that “crazy man who looks like a gorilla.”

Don’t ask me. I don’t analyze it, I just report it.

“From Carolina down to Georgia, smell the jasmine and magnolia. Sleepy, sweet home Alabama, Roll, Tide, Roll…”

Obligatory Super Bowl recap

Well, that sure was… the last game of the year.

What more could one say about a Super Bowl which featured eight turnovers and was often about as exciting as watching grass grow? I mean, there were a couple of exchanges where the players seemed to be playing hot potato with the football. Which would actually have been more entertaining.

And what can I say about Rex Grossman that some Chicago fan hasn’t already said, and probably much more colorfully than I ever could? There was one time where, on consecutive plays, he tripped over his own feet and then fumbled a snap. Seriously, he was like a one-man Bad News Bears out there at times. I almost started to feel sorry for the guy by the end.

And is it just me, or is the Super Bowl starting to become more of a human interest story than a football game? Last year, we had Jerome Bettis winning his final game. This year, it’s Manning and Dungy finally winning the big one after trying for years. And I could have sworn I kept hearing Katie Couric’s voice over and over and over.

Normally, when the game itself is kind of blah, you can always count on the halftime show commercials to provide some entertainment. But not this year. I mean, when one of the best ads involves K-Fed, you know it’s a bad year for Super Bowl commercials.

Although personally, I was intrigued to see the Izod and Van Heusen commercials. Is Izod back in?!?! And if so, how did I miss that? What’s next, Jordache? From there, we’re standing at the top of Acid-Washed Hill, looking down over Tight-Roll Valley. I’ve been there my friends, and that’s one slippery slope.

And I love Prince. But is the Super Bowl halftime show ever any good? And is it really necessary to hire hundreds of people every year to jump up and down and wave their arms in the air? I mean, is anyone sitting there watching thinking, this halftime show kinda sucks, but all those people are jumping and yelling, so it must be good.

Thankfully, Animal Planet was running Puppy Bowl III Sunday, which I found surprisingly hard to turn away from. It featured Bowl Cam, a camera located in the bottom of a clear water bowl, as well as a kitty halftime show. And a lone referee occasionally throwing flags and calling penalties on the puppies. It was engrossing.

After the game, someone was flipping channels and wound up on the Fuse network. Now I don’t get this channel on my cable. So imagine my surprise when I saw Jodie Sweetin in a tight-fitting, revealing referee jersey that she was wearing as a dress. She is the host of Pants-Off Dance-Off, which basically amounted to a PG-13 rated striptease competition.

Wow. Pin a rose on your… uh, nevermind.

“I never meant to cause you any sorrow. I never meant to cause you any pain. I only wanted to one time see you laughing…”