Alabama vs Tennessee.. Reporting behind the Lines

This will get a lot of down votes, but it's the truth.

I live only about 8 miles from the Tennessee border. Growing up in the 80's I didn't see that many UT fans... they were known of, but I didn't really see many in my state. That was from about the time I started to really follow football from about 1986 through about 1994 . A period of time where Bama owned the series winning every game except one tie...

This period followed a time when UT had owned the series from about 82-86, but I was too young to remember.

Now, after 1994... UT went on a streak owning the series from 1995 - 2006 losing only twice to Alabama... It started in 1995 at a game I was at, one of my first Bama games, in which Peyton Manning threw a TD on the first play. They won 41-14 and he went on to lead the band in Rocky Top in our stadium. Only the 100th time I had heard that song that night.

From that point on the amount of Tennessee Merchandise and Fans was major in my area... UT gear was just as prominent as Bama and more prominent than Auburn in my area for the next 11 years.

Imagine being from Louisiana and seeing Ole Miss or Arkansas Merchandise as prominent in every store as LSU's... Seeing those flags fly in your state on game day by locals... seeing those stickers, tags, t-shirts, etc in your state... not just by traveling visitors on game day... but all the time!!!

Today.. I don't hardly see a UT fan or UT gear... We have pushed them back across the border or at least they went into hiding... And you can drive across the line and see Bama fans and gear being sold in Tennessee just north of the border. We have pushed the enemy into retreating and invaded their territory...

To many of you... The UT game is just a rivalry that we Bama fans make up that isn't important... but to me it's the difference in having to see ugly orange T's on the back of cars in every parking lot I visit.