Where do I start? The beginning is usually a pretty good place.
We left home a little later than I'd hoped, but still managed to stop halfway between Montgomery and Tuscaloosa to eat at the traditional Bama Game Day pitstop, Jim's Pit on Hwy 82. It's always packed with Bama fans -- you'd be hard pressed to find anybody not in Crimson and White there on game day Saturdays. There were several folks there we knew, which was fun, and they had the TV tuned to the Auburn-Mississippi State game, so we were able to watch the end of that. Gotta tell ya, it was weird. Because he's one of US, we were all pullin' for Sylvester Croom, but in the weirdness that is SEC football, we also want Auburn and Alabama to have roughly equally successful teams so that the Iron Bowl is more fun. It was just a strange feeling to be in a place packed with Bama fans who didn't cheer when Auburn didn't pull out a victory.
Well, not much, anyway.
We got to Tuscaloosa, and since we aren't regular game-goers, parking is still a mystery to us. We chose a lot and thought to take a shuttle to the stadium, but opted to walk instead -- something like 2 miles, and we hot-footed it all the way. There were a gazillion things I wanted to take pictures of, but I was just too excited to think about it! Walking to the stadium, past the RV lots and the tailgaters, all you could hear was "Sweet Home, Alabama" playing, and nothing gets a Bama gal more fired up than that!
We had great seats -- and with the exception of one rather loud and obnoxious Razorback fan right behind us, I couldn't have asked for better. (And may I just take a moment to give another big shout-out to the Blooms? I could die happy today because of them!)
And speaking of that Razorback fan, he was there with a friend of his who is a Bama fan, and they were drunker 'n Cooter Brown, and I finally heard one "f" bomb too many, so I turned around and very sweetly said, "Sweetie? If I were to ask you very nicely to drop just that one word from your vocabulary, would you, please?"
Well, he was just embarrassed, and he did, and by the end of the game we were good buds, and we even ended up sharin' a celebratory smooch when it was all over.
Flies with honey, people.
Anyway.... back to the game.
Bama came out awesome strong, and yes, when they ran out on the field I got the feeling I'd been hoping I'd have -- these guys were there to PLAY. I felt the fire, truly I did.
But we got to draggin' a nasty bit and Arkansas was able to rally back and overtake us. Things were looking mighty grim late in the third quarter, and I turned to Henry with trembling lips and said, "I don't think I can stand this. Should we leave?"
Fixing me with a steely glare, he said, "We aren't Auburn fans."
We stayed.
And boy, what a payoff THAT was.
I just can't even begin to go into a thorough analysis of the totally whacked (but brilliant) decision by Saban to go for a field goal with 4 minutes remaining when 3 points wouldn't tie the game and send it into OT. Let's suffice it to say that maybe, just maybe, there's a reason that that "4" and all those zeroes are there -- cajones are worth something.
I love that he turned to his defense and asked them if they could get us the ball back before he made that decision -- talk about lettin' your team know you believe in them.
When it was all over, and Alabama had its first last-minute comeback in years, I was reminded why I love this game so much. Great coaches are good. Fun fans are good. But it's the the heart of the guys who have the jerseys on that makes this so special -- and folks? Bama has that in spades this year.
I'll have more random comments in the next day or two -- I'm still processing everything, but I'll leave you with this ....
ROLL TIDE ROLL!!
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