Football advice for non Alabamians...

If you are from the great state of Alabama, then you have undoubtedly had the opportunity to pick either Auburn or Alabama as your "team".  I'm surprised that it is not a required question to ask when renewing your driver's license..."Are you an Alabama or Auburn fan?"   It's that important to some people. I bet it must be confusing for someone who moves to Alabama from a state that doesn't take football as seriously as we do in the south. My advice to them would be...stay neutral..You'll have more friends that way. I promise you!

I know that most college football teams have state rivalries.  It's just a natural progression of having two universities in the same state with the same division size requirements for a football team. Not every body can go to one school so variety is good. I guess in Georgia, the rivalry is between the University of Georgia and maybe Georgia Tech.  In Tennessee the rivalry is between the University of Tennessee and maybe Vanderbilt...In Mississippi, it's the University of Mississippi and maybe Ole Miss...I think.  I don't really know because the only one that has ever seemed to effect my life in any shape, form or fashion has been the vicious and sometimes ignorant rivalry between Auburn University and the University of Alabama.  I won't give you the history of the rivalry. You can google that as well as I can, but I will give you a small snap shot of just how serious, yet silly, that the feelings of some people can be regarding their beloved team..whichever one they root for. But let me be clear...I have many wonderful (and not as ridiculous as the people I'm about to describe) Alabama friends. I have many great Auburn friends too. And, after all, isn't that what life is all about...Cum ba ya  and all that?   Hee hee.

When I worked at the hospital, I had a patient who was a very serious and devoted Alabama fan.  He had never stepped foot on the Tuscaloosa campus and to my knowledge was not a college graduate from anywhere, but when I walked in wearing Auburn scrubs, he wouldn't talk to me.  I had to go get another nurse to give him his meds.  He didn't trust me. Since then, I only wear neutral scrubs whenever I see patients.  I'm a home health nurse so I don't want to get thrown out of any Alabama fans' house.  That would really mess up my schedule.

I have a friend from high school (who shall remain nameless) who told me once (and he realizes that it's silly now), that he actually used to wonder how anyone could be an Auburn fan and still call themselves a Christian.  He actually did graduate from UA, but that's no excuse.  He should have known better.  He says now that he has many Auburn fans, but he never makes it a secret how much he hates Auburn. 

Now, to be fair, I have to say why I am an Auburn fan.  It's Troy.  He graduated from there, and was in the fraternity that got to take care of the eagle (their mascot..or is that the Tiger...why do we have two?) before the Vet school down there took over that job. I don't think he would appreciate it if I wore red and white on game day.   Anyway, it's a loyalty thing.  My sister gradated from there, and I didn't know a football from a sausage ball so yeah, sure I'll wear orange and blue.  I don't look that good in red anyway so that worked.  Then, in college (I went to the University of Montevallo which - to my  knowledge - is not affiliated officially with either of the big schools) I went through a brief period of time where, I had more Alabama fans than Auburn fans so I wore red and white and shouted "Roll Tide" for awhile.  However, if you strapped me up to a lie detector machine, you would find that I don't really care who wins cause, I "don't have a dog in that fight." as they say.. If one of my kids grows up to attend either university, I will gladly wear their colors -mainly because by then, I will be paying lots of money to whichever school it is, so I should support them with a t-shirt.  It will be the least I can do.  If they go to both schools, I will have to get a shirt with an Alabama elephant on one side and an Auburn Tiger on the other. Won't that be pretty?

Which brings me to the crux of why I wanted to write this blog...even though I really only just wanted to use the word "crux" but I'm a bit scared now cause I'm hoping that I will use it correctly...You see, my point in all this is...Attendance at either school is not a prerequisite to participate in the insanity of the rivalry.  Just like ownership in an NFL team is not a requirement to like one of those teams.  True football fans will just like watching good football players play the game.  The uniform won't matter.  We saw a t-shirt that said, "I got this t-shirt because I graduated from Auburn University. You got that Bama shirt because you went to Wal-Mart."...Now, that could go either way which is also true for pretty much any Auburn/Alabama joke.  It's just crazy.  It always has been, always will be.

The only advice I can give someone who didn't grow up in the midst of the insanity is that when you see a die hard Auburn fan or die hard Alabama fan coming, just smile politely, hope that you're wearing gray and speak in calming tones.  The insanity will calm down a bit in the spring when football season is over.  Until then, just stay neutral, but whatever you do...please don't say, "It's just a game" because then you will have both sides after you. You've been warned...Roll Tide and War Eagle!  : )