An Uma Sample - Being Bama

This was written on my sister's myspace blog. She's Bama through and through!

I love that she wrote this a couple of days before Bama's season opener...


Uma's words:
This SI guy pretty much said it all (that's why he gets paid the big bucks!) But since most of you don't have enough spare time and/or stomach to read 8 pages dedicated to why Bama fans are so pumped at this point, I'll state my case using a forward that made the rounds a while back. Just to prove that this tradition stuff is still relevant to us younger folk and not just the geezers, I'll try to make a point-by-point remark on how this applies to even a 29-year-old like me...



ALABAMA FOOTBALL IS:

1. It is Wallace Wade, It is Bear Bryant. It is Gene Stallings. It is NOT Bill Curry. (Okay, so Bill Curry was a LITTLE before my time but I loved Gene about like he was my own flesh and blood. I cried when he coached his last game because even then I knew he was a dying breed. Other than JoPa, there really aren't any still around quite like him. And his son Johnny embodies everything I love about Alabama football. I remember seeing him working at the Bryant Museum while I was a student at UA. If you make some kind of inappropriate comment about Johnny on this blog, I will hunt you down…)


2. It is definitely NOT Dennis Franchione. (Wow, does anybody remember how we rallied around this idiot? He was a good coach for sure but like it's been said before, I think he's learning that UA makes the coach and not vice versa. And one reason I'm proud to be a Bama fan? We took turns smashing the Fran bobbleheads and gave the proceeds to charity. Hook 'em Horns!)


3. It is the Sugar Bowl. (So we haven't been in a while but our memories there are sweeter than anybody's. And yes, I WAS THERE when we beat Miami in '93!)


4. It is the Rose Bowl. (How many other SEC schools can say that? Um, none. Check your facts folks… Bama was ridin' the rails to Pasadena back with most folks were just starting to field teams. And for any of you with Southern pride, you should take a peek at how the national media covered those games. In all honesty, I'll retire my shaker once I see Bama win a ring in the Rose Bowl because it won't ever get any better than that.)


5. It is hearing Keith Jackson call an Alabama game. (It's knowing who Keith Jackson is from something other than those catchy Gatorade commercials. I can sit here at this computer and almost hear him calling a game… just FYI, he came out of semi-retirement just to call the Bama-UCLA game in Pasadena in 2000)


6. It is watching George Teague run down Lamar Thomas in the 1993 Sugar Bowl then rewinding it and watching it again. (Man, George Teague was/is my all-time favorite player. Not only was he from da gump, I got to meet him back when he was a freshman and I followed him ever since. He did NOT disappoint. My favorite Teague play from that Sugar Bowl was the pick he returned for a TD. Man, I swear he did that just for me! And to boot, it was Teague that took out TO on the Dallas star!)


7. It is hearing the first notes of Sweet Home Alabama. (Well, I can't say that I love this song and I'm not real sure why a team predominantly consisting of African-Americans has this as one of their "theme" songs but it seems less annoying/cheesy than Eye of the Tiger. [Oops, did I type that?!?!] I love to hear this song though when we're on the road! But you're a true Bama fan if Dixieland Delight has become music to your ears!)


8. It is the desire to beat Auburn at any competitive event that exists. (It's true… we've gone to watch the girls soccer team play Auburn)


9. It is the houndstooth hat. (Let's face it, it's the houndtooth ANYTHING. The marketing guys really missed out when Steve Spurrier didn't take the job. Those houndstooth visors would still be on backorder.)


10. It is having enough pride to fight for your school but having enough class not to. (Ask my family, I've come close to blows a few times but I've always decided it was *ahem* not the classiest or, more importantly, the most Christian thing to do!)


11. It is cheering the same amount for a first down as a second and 6 or on fourth and 1. (Seriously, nothing feels better than cheering your lungs out and feeling like you were a part of causing that other team's false start or delay of game. It makes me feel like the 12th man. And you can ask anyone at our church, I'm ALWAYS hoarse on Sunday mornings in the fall, no matter the opponent or outcome.)


12. It is watching Cornelius Bennett give Notre Dame quarterback Steve Beuerlein a concussion on that October day in Birmingham in 1986. (Okay, so again this was before my time but I DO know exactly what play this is and I even know how to pronounce that dude's last name. I also know that the original Daniel Moore painting of this play hangs in the Bryant Museum and every true Bama fan dreams about hanging it in THEIR house someday!)


13. It is determining who you are going to date and marry by which team they swear allegiance to. (Not only that, but you also plan your wedding and/or pregnancies around football! We had just enough time to squeeze in a wedding and honeymoon before we made it back home to see Bama kick off the season against Vanderbilt. I don't have enough time to write the whole story but basically my oldest son was born just a few hours after a UA game that I was at! We never made that "mistake" again… our next kid was born in May!)


14. It is watching the Bear on the jumbotron before a game in Bryant-Denny Stadium and almost seeing him lean against the goalpost in the end zone. (It's also knowing most, if not all, of what the Bear says in those clips because you've memorized it… not because it's audible!)


15. It is spending a day at The Bryant Museum and still not seeing everything. (I love this place… I even got to spend some time in the research library once and decided that working there would be one of the coolest history-related jobs ever!)


16. It is watching The Bear get number 315 against Auburn. (Again, a little before my time but I know the scene well as it is commemorated in a Daniel Moore print hanging in my parent's house. And I swear, my oldest boy used to stare at that thing and raise his fist in a little Roll Tide fashion when he was only about a year old!)


17. It is watching The Bear get number 323 against Illinois. (And it's feeling really sad when a guy like Bobby Bowden surpasses that milestone.)


18. It is hearing Paul Kennedy do the play by play when Van Tiffin kicked the 52 yard field goal against Auburn in 1985. (Wow, this one actually isn't before my time… which makes me old! I remember this play and the Paul Kennedy call. I most vividly remember my dad breaking our ceiling fan when he jumped out of his chair celebrate that kick! And I also remember my MALE cousin crying because he had just "switched" over to Auburn that year… GOOD STUFF!)


19. It is knowing how many days until the start of a season year round. (Since I had kids, the offseason seems a lot shorter than it used to!)


20. It is driving down Colonial Drive to see Bryant-Denny Stadium, not the sorority girls. (Well, I'm not at all interested in the sorority girls obviously! And we usually walk up from the south endzone so we miss the pretty new promenade off of Colonial that pays homage to all the greats. Still, BDS looks good from any direction… it looks like HOME!)


21. It is getting chills up and down your entire body when ever you hear anything about the 1993 Sugar Bowl and the pride you feel because that night tradition ruled. (I can't explain how awesome it was to be there. That Miami team represented all I hate about college football nowadays. They were pompous punks and thugs who ran their mouth up and down Bourbon Street all week long. Then we ran the ball up and down them in the Superdome. I love the David Palmer quote before that game 'Everybody says Miami can beat anybody. But we're not just anybody… we're Alabama.' If you love and respect the game [and you're not an Auburn fan], you felt like all was right in the world after that game.)


22. It is hearing the Bear's voice and having all the hair on the back of your neck stand up because you know no matter what he said, it was something special. (It's being able to admit you usually couldn't tell WHAT the heck he just said but loving it just the same!)< SPAN>


23. It is hearing the Million Dollar Band play "Yea Alabama"and knowing it does just not get any better. (It's having your 3-year-old know the words to Yea Alabama. It's also knowing that it's 'Yea Alabama, Drown 'Em Tide', not 'Yea Alabama, Crimson Tide')



24. It is imagining hearing Penn State Quaterback Chuck Fusina ask Alabama linebacker Barry Krauss "How close is it"? and hearing Krauss say "About an inch, you'd better pass", right before fourth down during The Goal Line Stand in the 1979 Sugar Bowl. (It is being born in 1978 and still knowing exactly what The Goal Line Stand is!)


25. It is almost coming to tears whenever Alabama loses to Tennessee or Auburn. (It IS crying at the games, sometimes even when we win, and it being okay because I'm a girl! It's even better when you look around and see others crying, too!)


26. It is "The Kick". It is "The Goal Line Stand". It is "The Desperation Block". (It is watching an amazing play and knowing someday it will probably be a Daniel Moore painting referred to simply as "The _____"…)


27. It is Joe 'Willie' Namath. (It is him being so good that you're not even embarrassed the dude used to wear pantyhose and once appeared drunk on national TV while trying to kiss a sideline reporter!)


28. It is purposely not wearing any clothes with the colors orange and blue. (Seriously, I have to rearrange the shampoo bottles in my shower so that their orange packaging is not next to my blue Noxema pump… talk about neurotic!)


29. It is the third Saturday in October. (And knowing that we're SUPPOSED to play and beat UT on that day!)


30. It is not needing an alarm clock on game days, you sit bolt upright in the bed long before the alarm goes off because you know that it is gameday, you can sleep after the bowl game. (It's knowing you don't have to set an alarm clock because Bama almost always plays at night because we're primetime, baby!)


31. It is walking into a stadium and knowing Alabama will win the game no matter who they are playing just because that's the way it is supposed to be. (It's also knowing that no matter the odds, you feel like you're a national championship contender at the beginning of every season until you lose that first game… then crying if you do lose that first game!)


32. It is saying "Offense wins games, Defense wins national titles. (1993 Sugar Bowl is all I have to say about that.)


33. It is getting to the stadium hours before the game just to be there. (My hubby used to complain that I wanted to be in the stadium when it opened a whole TWO HOURS before kick-off but I think he's come around. It's such a serene time before the game and it beats sitting in a lawn chair!)


34. It is walking into another team's stadium and having those fans hate you because you are from Alabama. (I LOVE road games… and our hometown is like living at an away game!)


35. It is the pride that a father has when he brings his children to a game so they may cherish the tradition. (Man, probably the reason I love Bama football so much is because years ago I went with my dad and it was usually just the two of us. Now I'm on the other side of that equation and I LOVE taking my kid(s) with us.L/J)


36. It is beating LSU in Baton Rouge. (I have never been to Baton Rouge. Jeff and I talked about going back in 1998 and I KICK MYSELF for not going. That was one of the most awesome Bama games ever… The Tide don't lose in Baton Rouge!)


37. It is the pride you take in being every team's rival. (You know it's true… who doesn't seem to live to hate Alabama except us Bama fans?)


38. It is pulling for any team that is playing Auburn. (I plead the 5th)


39. It is pulling for any team that is playing Tennessee. (That was tough when they played A&M a few years back! I couldn't watch!)


40. It is hoping for the stadium to blow up when Auburn plays Tennessee. (Okay, not really blows up. I just tell everyone I'm cheering for the refs… that seems less violent!)


41. It is knowing that the SEC Championship is a birthright. (Call us Esau cause it feels like we sold that one to Jacob!)


42. It is being respected and feared at the same time. (I believe at the heart of it all, it's fear that drives the anti-Saban movement)


43. It is knowing what "Mama Called" means. (And knowing who said it… that would be Bear Bryant for all you Aubs)


44. It is beating the Gators twice a year. (1999 was a GOOD year, wasn't it?. It's even whoopin' Florida under one of the worst college coaches ever!)


45. It is the most bowl appearances and victories in NCAA history. (It's true… check your facts. But we need to stop letting other teams gain ground!)


46. It is having 21 Southeastern Conference Titles. (Truth is, this is Alabama and we don't even care about SEC championships! I'm surprised we've even kept count.)


47. It is having 12 National Titles. (It is knowing that in all honesty, it should be more like 13 or 14.)


48. It is class. (Nothing gets under folks' skin more than saying we have class. Truth is, I don't know that anyone in college football has much class now.)


49. It is tradition. (You can't argue with tradition… we have it and I can back that up with stats if you'd like. We're Dixie's football pride, Crimson Tide.)


50. It is Alabama Football. (It is getting chillbumps when you hear 'THIS IS ALABAMA FOOTBALL!' over the PA system at BDS, even if 100+ degrees!)


Believe me, if I had more time, I'd expound upon all the reasons I think Bama deserves to be back but I'm just too exhausted to be eloquent at this point. And let's face it, I'm not going to convert anyone anyway so why try? We're the few, the proud and I'm cool with that. Let it begin… ROLL TIDE!