Just waiting on kick-off . . .

Saturday. Sofa. Gameday. RTR. Coffee.

I won't be going to Tuscaloosa today unless a ticket just falls into my lap, which is highly unlikely here on the sofa. .  The last time I paid more than full price for a college football ticket (more than full price for a good used car) was in 2010.  It was a great first half for Bama.   The last thing I remember is going to get a hot dog at half-time. I have a hazy recollection of fumbling the hot dog on the way back to my seat.  Cam Newton ran up into the stands and ate that too.  So I don't pay too much for tickets anymore.  Bad karma.

The first UA-AU game that I remember attending was in 1967.  I was a schizophrenic fan at the time, having been an Alabama fan for all of my 12 years, but now facing the troubling fact that my brother and my future brother-in-law now stood on the Auburn sideline.  But it didn't really matter too much that day.  My nerdy attention was more directed to the airline jets flying low over Legion Field in their approach to the airport.  They seemed to be flying sideways like  wild geese in a hurricane.  Great moves were not limited to the gridiron as the huge crowd was forced to avoid umbrellas that had been ripped inside out by vicious wind gusts and converted into lethal missiles.  It was a miserable day.  I was watching the field, however, as Kenny Stabler slogged through the mud for the winning score for Bama.   7-3.

I was an Auburn fan for five years after that  It was hard for a Junior High guy to resist the perks of  having a brother and future brother in law on football scholarship.  Hanging at the athletic dorm, practice footballs with the AU branded on them. Auburn swag.  And lots of  games on Saturdays.

 When I was in ninth grade I broke my leg in early November.  My brother got me a sideline pass to the Auburn Alabama game that year.  I was standing on the sideline at about the 35 yard line when Connie Frederick ran right by me as he took a fake punt around right end about 99 yards for a touchdown. Auburn won handily.

I was there in blue and orange when Alabama with Johnny Musso trounced Auburn and recently annointed Heisman winner Pat Sullivan in 1971   I was there yelling War Eagle, actually mostly bored, then stunned,  for Punt Bama Punt in 1972.

But the next year I went to Tuscaloosa as a UA student and my birthright was restored for life.  My timing was great.  Bama won the next decade.

As I write this I think about how much fun it is to remember where I was and who I was watching the Alabama Auburn game with.  Everybody can describe the great plays and the great games. Bo over the top. Wrong way Bo.  The Kick. Punt Bama Punt. The Great Camback.  Whatever we're calling last year . . .still too painful for me to talk about or listen to anyone else talk about.

Yes, everyone knows all those big games and plays.  But there are lots of other things I know. I know how hard it is for a skinny ninth grader on crutches to survive a mob on a field after an Iron Bowl.  I know how hard it is to get out of a seatbelt that is locked and will not open and you are in a hurry to get to kick-off, and why you should always carry sharp scissors or a knife in the console.  . I know what it is like to drive a car full of slightly inebriated friends through hostile crowds as they make crude proposals of marriage out of the open windows. I know how good it feels to crawl inside the fireplace at Cracker Barrel at exit 76 after an Auburn win in the frozen rain and sleet.  I know that the concentration required to watch the game on TV actually accelerates the painting of a room.  I know that it is best for me to watch the game with about 100,000 other people, or by myself (or with another who is wise enough to leave me alone while I watch).  I know that you can listen to the game in Latvia, but nobody there cares about it.  I know that after the game the bars on the strip are great if you win, and pretty good even if you lose. I know that we shouldn't act like we never won before.   I know the patience that comes after a loss, with no chance for relief for a full year.

I am sure you have also learned valuable life lessons from the Alabama-Auburn game.

It is, after all an educational experience.  It is held right in the middle of two great university campuses (I originally typed campi.  Turns out that's not correct, just another example of the educational component of the game and its extensions).

Some say college football has become too important.

Yeah, I might say that some days.

But not today.  Not about the game that has taught me so much.

And it is just too much fun.

RTR.