---"I'm from Ohio," the University of Georgia
legend once said, "but if I'd
known what it was like down south, I would have crawled
down here on my
hands and knees."
Football in the south is an interesting beast. It's not
a game, it's not a
pastime...it's a way of life. It's a mixed drink of
family, religion,
politics and pageantry, spiked with shots of antagonism,
arrogance and
pride.
Critics label our view of college football as naive and
tendentious. Our
response? We couldn't agree more. Southerners revel in
regional bias, and
why shouldn't we? In the south, we transform a vast
picnic area into The
Grove. We see a stadium on the river and bring a Navy. We
take a plain
desert stone and make it magic. We have The Chop, The Chomp
and The
Ramblin' Wreck. We root for the same team as our dad,
the same team as his
dad
and say "to heck" with the team of your dad's
dad. We call players by
their
first names, anyone on the athletic staff
"coach", and to the chagrin of
media pundits and those who just don't understand, we
say "we".
Southern football is why my grandmother spent fall
Saturdays in orange
capris, blue reebok classics and alligator jewelry and had
a football card
of Danny Wuerffel taped to her dresser. It's the same
reason why my mom
can't watch the fourth quarter, my dad won't watch
the first quarter and
my
uncle and his two sons have walked around Valdosta, Georgia
with a
little more pep in their step since December 7th, 2002.
Southern football isn't tailgating, it's
all-nighting. It's not about
painting your face, it's about painting your chest.
It's not about grills,
it's about cookers. Inside the stadium, you don't
talk to your neighbors,
you yell at them. Those around you aren't strangers,
they're 80,000 of
your closest friends. You don't go on the road when you
travel to see your
team play...you go home.
Down here, you're not born a boy or a girl, you're
born a Gamecock or
Tiger. Down here, football is just as entrenched in our
culture as Jesus,
sweet tea and barbeque sandwiches. We say "Yes
Mam" and "No Sir", but we
also say "Roll Tide", "War Eagle" and
"Pig Sooey". Down here two plus two
equals third down and six.
Southern football is why you drive through Wrightsville,
Georgia and see
"The Home of Herschel Walker" on Highway 15.
It's why hundreds of adults
in
the state of Alabama are named "Bear". Southern
football is Billy Cannon,
Bo Jackson and Archie, Eli and Peyton Manning. It's
Bobby Bowden, Vince
Dooley and the Ole' Ball Coach. It's detergent
boxes under toilet paper,
frat boys in team-colored pants - it's Lynyrd Skynyrd
and Molly Hatchet in
button-down shirts, Southern Living with a cowboy hat;
it's a clash of
styles that produces a scene often imitated but never
duplicated. Ever.
The setting? So picturesque you don't want to touch it,
yet so enthralling
you just can't let it go. It's a similar one in
Knoxville, Tennessee,
Starkville, Mississippi and Blacksburg, Virginia, and it
has been for
years.
Southern football is Erk Russell joking, "we don't
cheat at Georgia
Southern, that costs money and we don't have any."
It's John
Heismansaying,"it's better to have died as a young
boy than to fumble the
football."It's Bobby Dodd saying he'd rather
face the lions in the
coliseum
than the Tigers in Baton Rouge. It's Clemson fans
stating they would
rather
be on probation
than lose to Citadel.
The players, the coaches and the rivalries are captivating
here in the
south. Florida-Georgia weekend causes more people to call
in sick on
Monday
morning than the stomach flu and strep throat,
Alabama-Auburn divides
households, neighborhoods and the entire state, and The Egg
Bowl is a true
late November fixture. The storylines are just as alluring.
Think "The
Choke
at Doak", "Lindsay Scott!!" or the 1961
Clemson-South Carolina game where
a
group of USC students impersonated the Tiger football team
in pre-game
warm-ups, catering to the crowd and the band before
flopping all over the
field and mocking Clemson's agricultural background
with milking
hand-motions.
Though the press tries to hype the last week in the regular
season as
rivalry week, every week is rivalry week in the south.
Something down
here
makes this game different. College football has a
legitimate influence on
state governments, a major affect on commerce and local
economies and is
the lifeblood and pulse of God's country.
Perhaps former Tennessee Volunteer radio personality George
Mooney put it
best.
"Southerners are proud of their football heritage,
their schools, and
their
teams. And they share a deep pride that goes with being
from the South,"
he
said. It's a match made, and currently outplayed, in
heaven.
:SIB
legend once said, "but if I'd
known what it was like down south, I would have crawled
down here on my
hands and knees."
Football in the south is an interesting beast. It's not
a game, it's not a
pastime...it's a way of life. It's a mixed drink of
family, religion,
politics and pageantry, spiked with shots of antagonism,
arrogance and
pride.
Critics label our view of college football as naive and
tendentious. Our
response? We couldn't agree more. Southerners revel in
regional bias, and
why shouldn't we? In the south, we transform a vast
picnic area into The
Grove. We see a stadium on the river and bring a Navy. We
take a plain
desert stone and make it magic. We have The Chop, The Chomp
and The
Ramblin' Wreck. We root for the same team as our dad,
the same team as his
dad
and say "to heck" with the team of your dad's
dad. We call players by
their
first names, anyone on the athletic staff
"coach", and to the chagrin of
media pundits and those who just don't understand, we
say "we".
Southern football is why my grandmother spent fall
Saturdays in orange
capris, blue reebok classics and alligator jewelry and had
a football card
of Danny Wuerffel taped to her dresser. It's the same
reason why my mom
can't watch the fourth quarter, my dad won't watch
the first quarter and
my
uncle and his two sons have walked around Valdosta, Georgia
with a
little more pep in their step since December 7th, 2002.
Southern football isn't tailgating, it's
all-nighting. It's not about
painting your face, it's about painting your chest.
It's not about grills,
it's about cookers. Inside the stadium, you don't
talk to your neighbors,
you yell at them. Those around you aren't strangers,
they're 80,000 of
your closest friends. You don't go on the road when you
travel to see your
team play...you go home.
Down here, you're not born a boy or a girl, you're
born a Gamecock or
Tiger. Down here, football is just as entrenched in our
culture as Jesus,
sweet tea and barbeque sandwiches. We say "Yes
Mam" and "No Sir", but we
also say "Roll Tide", "War Eagle" and
"Pig Sooey". Down here two plus two
equals third down and six.
Southern football is why you drive through Wrightsville,
Georgia and see
"The Home of Herschel Walker" on Highway 15.
It's why hundreds of adults
in
the state of Alabama are named "Bear". Southern
football is Billy Cannon,
Bo Jackson and Archie, Eli and Peyton Manning. It's
Bobby Bowden, Vince
Dooley and the Ole' Ball Coach. It's detergent
boxes under toilet paper,
frat boys in team-colored pants - it's Lynyrd Skynyrd
and Molly Hatchet in
button-down shirts, Southern Living with a cowboy hat;
it's a clash of
styles that produces a scene often imitated but never
duplicated. Ever.
The setting? So picturesque you don't want to touch it,
yet so enthralling
you just can't let it go. It's a similar one in
Knoxville, Tennessee,
Starkville, Mississippi and Blacksburg, Virginia, and it
has been for
years.
Southern football is Erk Russell joking, "we don't
cheat at Georgia
Southern, that costs money and we don't have any."
It's John
Heismansaying,"it's better to have died as a young
boy than to fumble the
football."It's Bobby Dodd saying he'd rather
face the lions in the
coliseum
than the Tigers in Baton Rouge. It's Clemson fans
stating they would
rather
be on probation
than lose to Citadel.
The players, the coaches and the rivalries are captivating
here in the
south. Florida-Georgia weekend causes more people to call
in sick on
Monday
morning than the stomach flu and strep throat,
Alabama-Auburn divides
households, neighborhoods and the entire state, and The Egg
Bowl is a true
late November fixture. The storylines are just as alluring.
Think "The
Choke
at Doak", "Lindsay Scott!!" or the 1961
Clemson-South Carolina game where
a
group of USC students impersonated the Tiger football team
in pre-game
warm-ups, catering to the crowd and the band before
flopping all over the
field and mocking Clemson's agricultural background
with milking
hand-motions.
Though the press tries to hype the last week in the regular
season as
rivalry week, every week is rivalry week in the south.
Something down
here
makes this game different. College football has a
legitimate influence on
state governments, a major affect on commerce and local
economies and is
the lifeblood and pulse of God's country.
Perhaps former Tennessee Volunteer radio personality George
Mooney put it
best.
"Southerners are proud of their football heritage,
their schools, and
their
teams. And they share a deep pride that goes with being
from the South,"
he
said. It's a match made, and currently outplayed, in
heaven.
:SIB
