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Having the privilege of growing up in the South, I have learned what my first priority should be: football. Throughout my adolescence, it has been clear that almost nothing but football should matter to me on Friday and Saturday nights. Friday is always reserved for high school football games, and Saturday is reserved for college football. Should this sport really be as important as it is? Why is it so important to us? And are other people as crazy about this sport as us southerners?
There are people who I hear argue with some of their best friends over their favorite teams. Some can’t even speak to one another on Saturdays because of the differences. Others are so obsessed that they name their kids after their favorite college team. Or maybe even decorate their house in a football “theme” even though the college football season only lasts about 18 weeks. Jade Chambers was shocked upon entering one of her friend’s houses, “I walked into her house and her dad has glass University of Alabama plates, framed hanging on the wall. And I’m thinking, where are the pictures of the children?!” This could be an obsession that will never be cured.
“Football is way too serious in the South. It gets so serious sometimes that it’s uncomfortable,” Jade comments about the severity of the South’s biggest obsession.
Coach Edwards, the wrestling coach at Bob Jones, attempted to explain southerner’s strong feelings towards college football. “After reconstruction, the southern man was beat down and the northerners thought they were useless and weren’t good for anything. But, in 1926 Alabama beat Washington in the Rose Bowl (also known as ‘the game that changed the South’) and this made the southerners very proud.” After learning this, I asked Coach Edwards his thoughts on football. “I love football, but I think it is ignorant how it influences laws, religion, friendships, and the way people act.”
Some think that college football shouldn’t take over people’s lives as much as it does. Many people treat it as if they have to spend their life dedicated to 18 weeks of football games. In the South, football is a religion and Nick Saban is our omniscient god whom we praise unconditionally.
Fans can go too far at times, giving the South a bad reputation. We don’t want people from other countries coming to the South and thinking to themselves, “I can’t believe these obnoxious rednecks are arguing about which football team is better!” Regardless, the obsession with college football is too much. Asiya, a foreign exchange student from Russia was in Tuscaloosa this weekend and commented on the fandom, “All these people yelling ‘Roll Tide!’ and wearing crimson were crazy. It was so crowded and everyone was yelling the whole time, I have never seen anything like it!”
Even in public places, strangers argue over their favorite teams and sometimes get into fights. Is this the image we want people to have of the South? It’s understandable to be excited over sports, but there is a fine line between supporting your team and giving the whole southern portion of the United States a bad reputation because of your actions.
