Football and Faith

Sometimes I can be in an unusually great mood and all is good in the world and then do something without much thought that maybe I shouldn’t have done in retrospect. Something that I assumed would be good with the best intentions but ends up making me look foolish or becomes embarrassing unexpectedly. I seem to be overly gifted with this ability to go off half cocked sometimes and it frustrates me to no end. I did this again today. What I did was unimportant but only to myself. I doubt it hurt anyone but maybe my own pride. The rest of the day went on smoothly enough and happy enough but still inside I felt like what I had done was a mistake and just simply an embarrassment. I kept this on my mind throughout the rest of the afternoon and it began to grow inside me to the point that I was not embarrassed anymore but angry with myself and causing me to question myself about why I do the things I do. I wonder why I place myself into situations like that. I wonder if it is a weakness or just spontaneous decisions that are not thought over properly. It makes me question how bright I am sometimes. Anyway, later in the evening I started feeling down about it. Really, it was nothing to even worry over other than self pride. I still allowed it to flow through my mind as I finally begun to wind down and let the excitement of watching my favorite college football team which was about to start. The Auburn Tigers were going to play the Clemson Tigers which for whatever reason I have always liked since I was a child. It was a big game in which I had been concerned about since the start of the season. Auburn was favored by 7.5 points. That bothered me also because I felt it was a sucker bet by Las Vegas to make some cash off of the Auburn Tiger’s loss to Clemson. Last week I had told a friend we would lose to Clemson by a touchdown and I believed I picked the score to be 28 to 21. I just didn’t think Auburn could handle their passing game. Immediately as the game started I continued to feel down and my team just looked horrible. Clemson smashed through Auburn’s defense like a pro football club would against an average high school team. My mood did not improve. It is a fact that the state where I reside college football is more passionate and some say more important than religion. Don’t believe it? Take a trip down south and see for yourself. Alabama Crimson Tide had already destroyed the Duke Blue Devil’s a few hours earlier by the score of 62 to 13 so the whole state gathered to watch the Auburn game on ESPN to either pull for Auburn or pull against them by proxy of Clemson. I said all that to illustrate how a football game can either improve your mood or cause you to become very angry. It is sort of like drinking whiskey, it is either good whiskey or bad and you will either be a happy drunk or a fighting drunk after drinking it. Well I felt down already and I became angry with the pathetic showing of my Auburn Tigers who in all actuality, in terms of playing football did not show up. I continued thinking of what was on my mind that day and Auburn was laying down like an old whore to Clemson. Before I realized it Clemson scored yet another touchdown making it a 17 to 0 deficit just before the half. This was going to be a blow out. At right about that time I began to question myself about what in the world I was getting so upset over. Why am I always beating myself up over such inconsequential things which occur in my life whether they are my own fault or not? My attitude began to change. I was feeling sick at myself for allowing myself to feel so angry about circumstances. I assured myself no one else had me in mind so deeply. Nobody else seemed to notice my self embarrassing moments in life at the level of interest and condemnation as I did. I started feeling better immediately. I started feeling my mood change. My son was laying on the couch playing with our cat and I decided to engage in some conversation with him as Auburn began driving down the field. I said to him “Auburn is going to get their butts kicked aren’t they?” Now granted that kids possess a whole lot more faith than life weary adults do but I was still surprised when my son answered “No Dad, Auburn is going to win!” as he turned to look me in the face. I know I had an incredulous look on my own face and he just looked away and mumbled something about having a little faith in Auburn, or maybe he mumbled something about his dad acting like he looked on edge to the point of throwing the television through the living room window, but I’m sure he said something positive. Well it wasn’t long after that and Auburn, unable to continue their final drive of the half lined up to kick a field goal. The score was now Clemson 17 and finally, Auburn 3. I sent my daughter who lives on the East Coast a text to inform her of Auburn’s brush with good luck fortunate enough to get on the score board. I also checked face book to read the constant chatter there of Auburn’s demise by the Tide fans. It sure didn’t look good. I looked at the score on the screen and started thinking absurd thoughts that Auburn was only down by 14 points as they interviewed the coaches, and that it could be possible for Auburn to get back into this game. Well the chatter on face book was not agreeable but the hope began to build inside me for my team to end the embarrassment. I started thinking about some of the great comebacks the Auburn Tiger’s had achieved in all the years I’ve followed them. I also started thinking that it might not be such a bad idea to work towards a comeback from an otherwise not so great day. Why not? Everyone is healthy as they should be and things really aren’t going so bad in my life. I wondered again why I allow myself to get so down over minor and unpleasant things. I am really getting tired of it and want to beat these feelings inside me that make me look forward to disappointments when I should be looking forward to a great life full of life itself. I began to feel ashamed of myself for feeling so weak and ungrateful. After an unexpected visit from some neighbor’s down the street that are very nice, the halftime break was coming to an end and the game resumed. I read a message on face book from a former teacher of my youngest daughter who was quite displeased with the performance of Auburn and I typed a response to her reminding her that this wasn’t Auburn’s first rodeo and how Auburn had come back from 4 touchdowns down against LSU once to win the game. It was a short message of hope and I was risking ridicule from the Bamer’s on face book at the time enjoying Clemson’s dismantling of Auburn, but it also felt good to put a little hope and confidence out there. I thought of how the young Auburn kid’s must be feeling at the moment, how whipped and embarrassed they felt as this underdog team from South Carolina came into their own house and pushed them around. It is real easy when your feeling low from stumbling and throwing interceptions and collecting penalties from mistakes and nothing seems to work or go right, real easy indeed to just give up. The Auburn kid’s chose the opposite despite taken some of the hardest hits in college football and having so many points to catch up just to get back in the game. These young men looked inside themselves and asked themselves if this was the best that they could do. They answered no to that question and dug deep inside themselves just to see how much metal they had in them as sportsmen and later it became obvious to them that they had plenty. Auburn stormed back onto the field and continued to have a few set backs but charged back to score 24 unanswered points against these Tigers from Clemson. The game became even more physical with numerous injuries to players on each team from brutal hard hitting play. The camera zoomed in once to the Clemson Quarterback who was injured earlier and was literally holding on to another fellow player to continue standing on his own feet. The game ended regulation play tied at the score of 24 to 24. Sudden Death overtime rules were in effect and Clemson won the toss to choose offense or defense and field position. Clemson chose to defend. Auburn sputtered once again unable to penetrate the Clemson defense but kicked a field goal to take the lead at 27 to 24. Clemson drove the ball within striking distance of scoring a touchdown when the Quarterback threw to the end zone and the ball struck the receiver in the hands and the ball fell to the turf inches within being a perfect catch. Clemson lined up and kicked a perfect field goal to tie the game in overtime but flags were thrown on the field of play. A penalty against Auburn would almost surely guarantee a Clemson win but Clemson’s center had lifted the ball and placed it back to the ground drawing a penalty that required them to back up and kick again. When the ball was kicked it faded away just left of the goal post clinching a win for Auburn when all looked bleak and un-winnable just moments before. Auburn ended the game in victory when all hope seemed impossible. The Auburn Tigers were favored to win this game but Clemson had other plans and played their hearts out for a big upset to end a thirteen game losing streak against Auburn and they played in outstanding fashion. The Auburn Tigers had to look deep inside their hearts while they were down by 17 points embarrassed in their own stadium and choose to change their attitudes and instead of allowing defeat to swallow them they chose to be victors. During this game I also looked inside myself and saw something I did not like and chose to change it because I was capable of choosing how I felt. I have the choice to allow other people or circumstances to bring me down or to overlook other’s actions and my own self ridicule and move on to be the best I can be myself and allow for mistakes and foul ups without losing hope in myself. I may also be victorious if I choose faith. 

Coach Nick Saban Made a Believer Out of Me

  

  

Nobody trashed talked the hiring of Alabama’s Nick Saban more than myself. Nobody! I found every reason, factual or not to exploit the idea that Nick Saban was nothing more than the latest College football Head Coach hype. The controversy surrounding his hype encouraged me even more while he constantly denied the rumors that the big money in Tuscaloosa had lured him into top position to lay claim to be Alabama’s next head coach. I found him to be incredibly arrogant and merely ego driven and money hungry. His constant denials of taking the job convinced me more than ever that he would be the University of Alabama’s next head coach. Once the final announcements were done and over and Nick Saban took the drivers seat of the tide my joy was near complete. I counted on Alabama being a hard fit for the man’s ego and problems would surely arise. His first recruiting efforts seem to produce great results but I didn’t care. I hated Alabama and naturally my hate transferred along to Saban. The first Iron Bowl delighted me with the Deer in the headlights look that remained on Saban’s face throughout the behind the woodshed butt whipping Auburn put on Saban’s Tide. It seemed things would just fall into place as I had thought. Then the next year brought Auburn the turmoil behind the scenes that brought the Tigers down to earth and eventually Tommy Tuberville out of the door at Auburn but not before a major butt kicking in an Alabama shut out of Auburn in the Iron Bowl. Saban continued to recruit outstanding players which has really never been hard to do at Alabama, but Saban kept at it and built this year what I thought to be the best overall Alabama football squad I have ever seen in my lifetime, including the 1992 Championship team which embarrassed an overly cocky Miami team in the National Championship causing even me to pull for Alabama in what has been only a few times in my life. Anyway, I still feel this year’s team was better than the ’92 team that embarassed the Miami Thug’s. That is saying quite a lot. This year began as usual with Alabama defeating Virginia Tech and a handful of other not so great teams, yet they were scoring a lot more points as usual but what I noticed early was that Alabama was not allowing as many point against them as they had in years prior. Also, it was obvious that Alabama’s talent included many different players that shined. Enter Mark Ingram, who busted out of no where carrying the ball with high per carry averages and hardly ever dropped the ball. If I am not mistaking he only had one fumble this whole season. Collecting game after game of 100 yard plus carries and without doubt being the very reason for wins in close games. He continued to rumble down the field padding his stats unstopped allowing Bama’s Quarterback McElroy to produce more and more completions while the defense continued to shut down the opposition game after game. I believe the best measure of Mark Ingram’s talent was uttered by Auburn’s leading ball carrier Ben Tate who spoke to the media about how he felt he was being overlooked for the Heisman Trophy this year trailing only a handful of carrying yards behind Alabama’s Ingram. First I found this Whiney statement embarrassing and yelled at Ben Tate on my Big Screen TV to put his mouth where his money was and prove on the ground carrying the ball. This years Iron Bowl proved to be no doubt the surprise game of Alabama’s season with Auburn basically controlling the game with fired up passion and success at stopping Alabama’s Mark Ingram cold with brutal hits and gang tackles. However, Auburn could not keep the passion alive for the duration of the game and let the Tide execute its last possession perfectly and escaping a loss in the last few minutes of the game.  Auburn could hold their heads up for whipping the Tide but Alabama won the game and we all know that is all that matters. Everything else is never remembered. But unlike Ben Tate, Mark Ingram kept his mouth shut and his feet moving against Florida recovering what most thought lost including me that his Heisman hopes were over with. He showed humility that warms the heart of all people by not giving up. He gave his last performance all he had and managed to convince all who voted on the Heisman Trophy that he was the best in America this year. Another point I must make is this, any team that can run the table in the SEC well, they are the true National Champions regardless of any bowl game. Although I myself was pulling for Stanford’s Toby Gerhart, Mark Ingram was handed the Heisman trophy and no one can deny that he had earned it. The tears flowed from Ingram, unlike Tebow; Ingram’s tears were shed in victory and accomplishment. Not defeat. I suppose all who watched as I did felt really good for his dream paying off. I will just find it difficult to swallow the fact that now Alabama has a Heisman trophy to show off as well as just about all others. I will live, but credit must be given when credit is due. My congratulations go to Mark Ingram with sincerity. Eating crow has always been hardest of all to swallow and all I can say was that I was dead wrong about Coach Nick Saban. He has proven again he is a winner. Coach Nick Saban made a believer out of me. Now I can’t help but to wonder that if Alabama beats Texas, Which they will, would Alabama be able to keep Saban at the helm? It’s a fair question with other teams still looking for a new Head Coach. Will Saban be attracted by a new challenge at another big time program? It certainly looks as though Nick Saban is Coach fix it in NCAA Football.