re: Alabama Football is important in my life

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Woodrow Wilson

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Damn, dude. Well said. Scathing, but well said. Honestly, your points apply to most SEC schools. Alabama just epitomizes the idea.

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Sissy

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I think you just confirmed one of his points.

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Woodrow Wilson

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A great post, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Your entire diatribe is based on a perception of the University of Alabama through the lens of the football program, so it is no wonder that you see what you see. What do you know of the university? Have you ever been to the campus? Can you name two professors?

Think of this: Vanderbilt, Northwestern, and Duke are all known first as outstanding universities. When one of those schools have a great year in football, they are still perceived as a great university whose football team had an unusually successful year. You could make a strong argument that the academic reputation actually IMPEDES their perception in the polls and among sports fans because their football team will always be overshadowed by the academic side of the institution. You might even add Stanford to that list - the further away from the West Coast you go, the more people see Stanford as a great academic institution with an unusually successful football program, but not an elite.

A great example of the Alabama side of things is Texas. The University of Texas as Austin is an incredible academic institution. They are very competitive with schools like Michigan or Virginia or Rutgers academically. But the pervasiveness of the sports program makes most people think of football when it comes to Texas, and at times it shortchanges the academic reputation of the outstanding university.

So in short, your post sounds very intellectual and is well articulated, but there is not a valid point underneath, just a shallow commentary based on an uninformed perception.

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Let’s just say what most people think about the University of Alabama. Its football pursuits justify its identity with an uneducated backward white population and a symbolic link to the Lost Cause they hold so dear. Much in the same way as D.W. Griffith’s movie The Birth of a Nation encouraged the worst elements of southern society a hundred years ago; Bama football still encourages a similar backward behavior from a large segment of its fan base today. The Crimson Tide football team is an outlet for their lunatic fringe fans and gives them a venue to be recognized.

Bama fans overestimate the “esteem” of being the last college football factory and unwittingly rob themselves of the very reverence they crave by their boorish and obsessive behavior. They defend the indefensible and deny the undeniable. Their unhealthy emotional stake in Bama football substitutes for their own lack of personal acknowledgement and respect. Thus driven by extreme emotion they have delusions and commit unconscionable often violent actions (Harvey Updyke and others). Even Nick Saban contributes to the lunacy by comparing losing a football game to the Pearl Harbor and 911 tragedies when thousands of Americans lost their lives.

Also the University of Alabama’s misplaced priorities of gold-plated football fluff over economic substance harms the state’s citizens with a false bravado of football. History reveals that the holy crusade of Bama football acts as an impediment to social and economic progress. For instance the University of Alabama administration allows white-only sororities to continue their policy of banning African-American females from membership. Ironic that most of the precocious Bama “student athletes” are African-American but their daughters and sisters can be excluded from university sororities.

It is well known that when a university simply reflects the attitudes of its football fans it is no longer a university in the true meaning of the word. Football has stalled the University of Alabama’s transformation into a modern university with intellectual, aesthetic or humanistic concerns. The reality is that the NCAA would actually do the University of Alabama a favor by handing down the Death Penalty for its football team. Then perhaps finally its faculty, alumni and students might appreciate the scholarship and learning that mark a university with intellectual fiber and integrity.
And so it is that “roll tide” is the mortifying apology for those who are either naive or without individual self-respect or dignity.

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It's awesome you took the time to write all of this. It's even better you believe it

It's the standard B1G/Pac12 argument. I hear it CONSTANTLY in Indiana. All the Big Ten fans still cling to the belief that their conference is the best sports conference, so to be able to dismiss the SEC they believe that they are "legitimate" universities and schools in the SEC are just minor league football programs with a cheating, substandard university attached to it. That lets them think "we are the best of the actual college sports teams, and the other guys aren't really competing by the rules."

The last gasp of a loser. I just remind them that every time a big name athlete chooses Ohio State or Michigan over Alabama or LSU or Florida, it's just one more example of why they are full of shite. They use the same type of players we do, they just aren't as successful recruiting them.

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You deal with it when the NCAA comes calling again.

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Worked last time, right? You better pin your hopes on something else this time around, our program is cleaned up and now Florida is kicking your arse too.

Maybe you should consider actually getting good again, rather than trying to drag down your rivals.

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I doubt that one knows who QBs Tennessee.

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I have forgotten more about UT and SEC football than you know.

Tell me about Richmond Flowers.

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Tell me about Richmond Flowers.

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My favorite player as a child.

Played for us because the filth and in Alabama extends beyond their football team. Set his father up and locked him away.

He came to Tennessee to escape the filth.

Returned kicks for Dallas in the pros.

Now tell me what piece of equipment helped the Italian Stallion for Bama.

Talking about the cutoff jerseys?