If you live on the planet Earth or in Tuscaloha, as we refer to my hometown now, you are probably aware that the Alabama Crimson Tide won its 17th National Championship Game in Atlanta, Georgia on January 8, 2018. It was a long haul to get to the championship game against the Georgia Bulldogs and many loyal fans had all but given up on the tide rolling Alabama’s way. After a crushing defeat by the Auburn Tigers, the defeat of Auburn by Georgia in the SEC Championship, and a few incantations, we managed to be voted in as the fourth team in the playoff series. We proved we had a right to be there by beating Clemson in the first round.
On game night, the Board gathered at a member’s house to watch the game in the “big room with the big TV.” The first half of the Championship game was humiliating, 13-0 with Georgia controlling everything in the game. They could run the ball, throw the ball while holding us back and nothing that we did was successful. Georgia dominated the field and the love of the ESPN announcers flowed and gushed forth with commentary on the great and mighty Bulldogs. Alabama had only 94 yards and 4 first downs in the first half and the announcers gleefully exclaimed we had never been down 13 to 0 since the Sugar Bowl game against Oklahoma in 2014.
During halftime, sensing a doomsday outlook for Alabama, I called my know-it-all, calm and collected nephew. He, ever confident, predicted that Tua would play the second half and Alabama would win. “It’s all good,” he said. I relayed his game plan to those in the big room with the big TV and they laughed. No way would Nick give up on Jalen and put a freshman in the game. But he did and as a Board member exclaimed at the beginning of the second half, “there’s Number 13!!!! How did he know?” Well I was pretty sure Nick called my nephew for advice and was told to play the freshman in the second half. Even Kirby Smart knew that Nick would go with Number 13.
It worked; we had a spark of hope. We started playing ball and tied the score late in the fourth quarter at 20-20. I was displaced (run out of) from the big room with the big TV and relegated to the kitchen and a 1970 radio and Eli Gold. Maybe it was a self-exile that led me there, but the analyses and commentaries drove me away from the ESPN announcers. And a radio broadcast is about 15 seconds ahead of the Direct TV transmission so I was ahead of those in the big room with the big TV. I heard the missed field goal with 3 seconds left in regulation play. I heard the Georgia field goal in overtime. I heard Tua get sacked on the 41-yard line. And then I heard Eli: “Tua loads up, looks long, end zone, TOUCHDOWN! DeVonte Smith. Alabama and the Crimson Tide ascending again to the top of the college football mountain, their 5th in 9 years, 17th overall.” I joined them in the big room with the big TV for the celebration.
I have seen the touchdown many times since the game, my browser history is packed. I have heard the broadcast in Spanish; “Tagovailoa pase quiero hombre…….TOUCHDOWN! Alabama wins.” I have heard it on the Georgia Bulldog radio station: “He’s got a man open….OH MY GOD – TOUCHDOWN!!!! Alabama wins.” I have heard the ESPN announcers recant their love of anyone playing against Alabama as “Tua fires in the endzone, TOUCHDOWN, Alabama wins,” and then their admission that we did indeed deserve all the hoopla and confetti. ESPN simply tweeted “Alabama does what Alabama does.”
Earlier in the season, I read a sports article by a reporter who was asked to write about the Alabama football team. Deciding that the word “awesome” was used too often when referring to the Tide, he set out to find another word. Conclusion: he could not. It takes an eleven million dollar man to make a gutsy call and stack the deck for a freshman-to-freshman game-winning touchdown. Bear Bryant said, “When you get in the endzone, act like you have been there before.” We have had the ultimate endzone experience – a game-winning touchdown in overtime. Alabama is awesome. From the top of the mountain, “Roll Tide Roll.”
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