re: Rolling The Tide | America's most embarrassing fan base and their stories

Last year, as Paul Finebaum sat in a jail next to the man who poisoned Toomer’s Oaks in Auburn, a thought occurred to him: nothing had changed for Harvey Updyke.

“You hope that someone that goes to jail and apologizes would learn from the experience, but he had not,” the ESPN radio host said. “Instead, he seemed to be as delusional that day on his final day in jail as he had been at any time.”

“His flip-flops made a small squeaking noise on the floor, and on the chest-high pocket of his county-issued orange jumpsuit he wore an unauthorized message over his heart. ‘Roll Damn Tide,’ it said, scrawled unevenly in black ink,” Finebaum wrote as he described first laying eyes on Updyke in jail.
The book discloses several details about the meeting, such as Updyke having a dog named after Alabama coach Nick Saban and him claiming to be a celebrity at the jail, signing autographs in jail for an unusual fee: Little Debbie Honey Buns.
“He just couldn’t shut up about his celebrity and I thought nothing was really accomplished here,” Finebaum said Thursday.
Finebaum said that if he had to guess why Updyke did what he did, it would be that in his mind, he was somehow avenging Alabama’s loss to Auburn that year.
“He felt like he was doing this for Nick Saban or Alabama; that Cam Newton had ruined his day or ruined his life and that he was somehow going to get him back,” Finebaum said. “Now, does that make a bit of sense? No, but we’re talking about delusion.”
Despite what Updyke did, Finebaum still had a soft spot for him.
“Harvey had too much Bama in him,” Finebaum wrote in the book. “But Bama has always had a weird effect on people.”

Opelika August 1