SB Nation User Blog: SouthernComfort34

Rivalry Round-Up: Part I

SouthernComfort34 — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:59:38 -0000

This weekend I drove 6.5 hours west from Annapolis, MD to Columbus, Ohio to witness what ESPN refers to as "The Game". All my life, I've heard about this rivalry and how it is "the best in the nation". While I expect this single account of the game will do nothing to its reputation, I feel that my experience will give all of you an idea of what it is that some of you will never have the opportunity to experience, and most of you who wouldn't wanto to.

Friday Night:

We left USNA at 3:30 Friday afternoon, and made our trek across Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and finally into Ohio. The Appalachian Mountain Range was beautiful along the way. We reached Columbus at 10:00, and planned to make our first stop at my buddy's friend's house to pick up our tickets.

As we came into the campus, I really began to pay attention to my surroundings. We were in what looked like a housing project. I say this because of this proximity of the houses to each other and the disaster that was most of the yards. I asked my buddy if this was actually on campus. He looked at me dumbfounded, and said it was. The houses looked horrible. Beer cans and trash were all over the porches and front lawn.

Now, I'm a college student. While it's true, I haven't received a true college experience from the institute I came to. I understand this was the night before the biggest home game of the year, but this was ridiculous. To make matters worse, my buddy informed me that this was the norm and that “football was an excuse” for the way it looks now. I honestly couldn’t believe it.

The biggest surprise was our trip down fraternity row. As we pulled on the street, my buddy told me what it was and I was eager to see the houses. While they were big, they also looked like they hadn’t been kept up at all since the 80’s. Paint was peeling, stairs were missing from the porch, and the whole street looked fairly in disrepair. The best looking house made up for its standard condition by hanging a banner from the 2nd floor window that read in scarlet letters, “F*CK MICHIGAN”. That star was an uppercase “U” though. I couldn’t believe it. Fraternity row? I’m not in a fraternity, and have never had any association with one but always thought they held themselves to some type of standard.

We crashed at his sister’s house that night. He hadn’t seen her in a while, and wanted to catch up. We would need the sleep.

Saturday:

We woke up at 5:00 and wrapped up in as many layers as we could without looking completely ridiculous. Our first stop was The Pati”O”, a bar that opened at 4:30 on gamedays for their “Kegs and Eggs” party. We arrived at 6:00 and the place was packed out. Everyone was in scarlet and grey, and the place was hopping. We ordered drinks (I got their special, Apple Cider + Crown, which was incredible), and mingled among the fans. Anytime a Michigan fan walked in they were showered in obscenities. I thought that was kinda cool, but when 20 guys begin the chant “blue slut” and all point at a 5’0 girl who’s wearing a Michigan shirt, and is hanging out with some OSU friends, I quickly became disgusted.

We left the bar, and headed to a friend’s house for more “Kegs and Eggs”. This gathering was fairly mild mannered. Here’s a picture to give you your first visual.

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp33/SouthernComfort34/IphonePics005.jpg

Very nice girls, a puppy, and Gameday in the background; things were good.

We left the party, and started our walk towards the stadium. The trashy yards looked even worse in the sunlight. I suppose I wasn’t as disgusted though, because I was about to go to the game, and had drank enough to not care.

“The Shoe”, as it’s called, appeared out of nowhere. It had an “antique” feeling to it, which I appreciated. We walked up the ramp to our seats, and arrived just in time to see Script Ohio.

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp33/SouthernComfort34/IphonePics040.jpg

This was probably the most coordination that occurred on the field all day.

I understand no one wants a game recap. So, I won’t give one.

The stadium atmosphere was very impressive. At kick-off everyone yells,”OOOOOOO(kick)-H-I-O”. It sounds pretty good, especially with a lone soul yelling “Roll Tide Roll”. They also do a chant with every side of the stadium yelling out a letter, spelling Ohio. We sang a song with lyrics, “We Don’t give a Damn about the whole state of Michigan, cause we’re from Ohio.” Great atmosphere, loud stadium, amazing band, and the football was mediocre at best. The Shoe would be a great place for a close game, but I would NEVER bring my kid to a game. The language was insane. I sat on the opposite end of the student section, and couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Everyone knows the “BullSh*t” chant after a bad call, right? Well the ENTIRE stadium joined in.

After the game, I witnessed the tailgaiting scene for the first time. I honestly could count about 200 tents from the stadium, and that is it! Most of those tents were commercial deals from alumni groups. Very meager.

That night, we went downtown. There were riot police everywhere! Ohio St had just beat the worst Michigan team in history and they were ready to riot. I didn’t feel safe while walking the crowded streets. I was constantly on alert. There was drunken belligerence everywhere. Not funny, ha ha, we are drunk and are making fools of ourselves, but man you might want to go to the hospital you can’t stand by yourself drunk. I was fairly disgusted. I saw three fights (all OSU vs. OSU), and four arrests in the two hours I was out. It really was on the brink of complete anarchy.

That about wraps this one up. If there are any questions, comments, concerns at all, please leave them in the comments’ section. I’ve obviously left out plenty of details, but I wanted to get this posted as soon as I could.

Next Week: The Iron Bowl

Rivalry Round-Up

SouthernComfort34 — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:39:12 -0000

In the next three weekends, I will be attending three of the nation's top rivalries in college football. I've made plans to give a through report about my trips, and include some comparisons between the games. If there are any suggestions on what to look for, or compare, please leave some suggestions on the comments. The games are:

Michigan @ Ohio St

Auburn @ Alabama

Navy @ Army

I hope to give some insights on what exactly the Iron Bowl is best in, and some things that we might be lacking.

Who Cares!

Roll Tide!

Beat Army!

Deleted FanPosts

SouthernComfort34 — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:44:37 -0000

There are few tasks of the countless things I have to do to stay on top of things here at Navy that bring more satisfaction to me than reading Roll Bama Roll. However, something occured in the last 24 hours that has created some concern for me.

Stated, is the Roll Bama Roll Guideline:

This is primarily an Alabama blog for Alabama fans, but we talk about all kinds of stuff from football in general to the music and movies we like, so you’re welcome to do the same. But in everything you comment on or post, remember, the anonymity of the internet does not give you license to be rude. Secondly, let’s remember that there are a lot of different people that root for the Tide, and therefor a lot of different people are reading this blog. Profanity is occasionally acceptable, but for the most part we want to keep things PG-13 around here, and any sort of racist/sexist/homophobic or just plain hateful comments will be deleted immediately.

It’s important that I say this is not an attack of the overseers of this site at all. They give all of us great material to read everyday, and provide a great outlet for us to share.

With that being said, I feel that it is important to point out something that occurred on this site recently.

Yesterday, someone by the name of “Brutus” posted an “I Hate Nick Saban” rant as a FANpost. While some of the comments on that post became borderline “R” rated (including mine, in which I referred to “Brutus” as an “unimaginative whore”), most were entertaining and in good taste. However when I woke up this morning, I saw that the post had been deleted. (If Brutus himself took down the blog, then everyone can stop reading here)

This made me ask myself a few questions.

Why do we blog? While I can’t speak for all of us, I know that I blog because I’m passionate about my team. ESPN.com just doesn’t do it for me. I need to read some passion, and be able to share my own.

Why do we NOT blog? I’m confident none of us blog to see what collection of profanity we can couple together to prove points. I feel that none of us blog to get into shouting matches with others. I’m also sure that none of us blog to read the same things we can get from the national sports outlets.

When I first read the post, I honestly figured it was on the RBR members trying to get a stir out of the fanbase during the off week. If that was the case, well done.

IF that was not the case, I feel that some imaginary boundary might have been crossed. We take down posts because we don’t like what they say now? SB Nation is designed for fans to join all the sites they want.

Let people write what they want, or change the guidelines to say that this is strictly for Bama fans and positive Bama words only.

Yes, I understand he was a “troll” or whatever. That he had never posted anywhere else, and he was just looking to “start a fight”, but did you see the comments? We handled it superbly! The word “classy” might even be an understatement. It was a testament to the fanbase, and therefore to the program itself.

But that’s all gone now. It’s all pro-Bama on this site. No arguments here.

You have Opinions? Sure, as long as they don’t get too many disagreements.

I understand this is not too big of a deal, but I suppose I’m more concerned about where the line will be drawn in censoring of FANposts (They’re called FANposts for a reason).

Let us defend our beliefs and our team! If the random posting becomes a trend, then that can be another bridge we can cross but until then let thoughts and opinions be shared!

Ok, I’m done now. I just had to get that off my chest. I love this site, and appreciate everyone who contributes to it. I hope that, if anything, this will spark a conversation about the topic, or at the very least cause someone to think twice before deleting another non-offensive post.

Roll Tide Roll!

Proud of Who We Are...

SouthernComfort34 — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:46:13 -0000

Last year, I attended the Iron Bowl. Throughout the day I was subjected to classless heckle and chants that I soaked in, as I enjoyed the atmosphere of a rivalry game. That night after the game, I was subject to even more ridicule and disrespect after the game. Full grown men and elderly women were going out of their way to put six of their fingers in my face.

I've never been more proud to be a citizen of this great state.

At some point that night, I realized that it is our love for the game and our teams that sets us apart and brings us together. Our daily inhibitions that keep our eyes straight ahead on highways or attention placed safely in our shopping carts at the grocery store vanish and for a few Saturdays in the fall, we become a passionate people. Truly Beautiful.

Perhaps the fact that I've been attending school here in Maryland for the last four football seasons, and have been exposed (whether I liked it or not) to Div-1 Independent (no conference) football, I have found new appreciation for the SEC and all college football throughout the Heart of Dixie.

Bask in this time of the year. Whether it's "Roll Tide Roll" or War Damn Eagle", no matter if you plan on holding up 7 fingers and welcoming a coach back into good graces, or holding up 1 finger and know that it has more to do with a ranking than a streak, just enjoy everything about our culture.

For the next two weeks, let the sports writers write their stories about great games of the past, let the staticians compile meaningless facts, and let Finebaum take calls from manic fans on his show. Soak it in folks, this is as good as it gets...

Proud of Who We Are...

SouthernComfort34 — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:17:52 -0000

Last year, I attended the Iron Bowl. Throughout the day I was subjected to classless heckle and chants that I soaked in, as I enjoyed the atmosphere of a rivalry game. That night, I sat through 3 and a half hours of uneventful football, and was subject to even more ridicule and disrespect after the game. Full grown men and elderly women were going out of their way to put six of their fingers in my face.

I've never been more proud to be a citizen of this great state.

GameDay Set

SouthernComfort34 — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 04:25:10 -0000

I'm heading to Baton Rouge for the game this Saturday, and wanted to see the Gameday set. Is there a traditional place on campus where it is set up? Near the stadium? Thank you so much for your help.

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When We Play...

SouthernComfort34 — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:06:54 -0000

Someone please help me out. When I found out about CBS picking up the Bama/LSU game for their afternoon game I was really upset. Really. This is a clinching game to win the West for Alabama, it is Alabama's last regular season away game, and I do not even need to mention the weight of Saban's return to Baton Rouge.

While I believe the time of kickoff will do nothing but help Alabama, my question is what determines what game is on what channel?

I understand CBS broadcasts SEC games, but what determines who gets what game? Does CBS get first pick of the SEC match-ups?

In a certain scenario, where votes really matter, could a 2:30 CBS game get less attention than a prime-time ESPN game that hosts Gameday? Could this hurt a SEC team's chance for national exposure?

I understand the coachs' poll is the one that truly matters, and they all watch Sports Center for their info anyway. However, there is no coach in America that watches a game on TV before their own game on Saturday. However, I'm sure there are plenty that sit and watch the prime time game after their 12:00 or 3:30 game.

I suppose I'm being nit-picky, and probably just upset because I have tickets to the game and was looking forward to a night in Death Valley. However, I think there are some pertinent questions that deserve a look.

Teach me RBR...

Run the damn ball...RTR

LSU Trip

SouthernComfort34 — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 01:46:26 -0000

Hey Tiger Fans!

I currently live in Annapolis, Maryland, where I go to school. I'm active duty military, and have (by the grace of God) been granted leave for the weekend of November 7th. I've decided to use this precious time to go to Baton Rouge for Saban Bowl II. As an Alabama fan, this will be my first time to Baton Rouge and I wanted to be sure this trip was worthwhile.

So, this is a post asking for any advice about how to spend my time there (What are the good places to eat, etc.). I'm a huge fan of tradition, and wanted to know about any LSU traditions that are done before or after games. I'm getting in Friday night, and will be there until Sunday.

Thanks in advance for all of your help!

Roll Tide! Beat those Dawgs!

LSU Trip

SouthernComfort34 — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:18:05 -0000

So despite living in Annapolis, Maryland and having an average college student income, I've decided to make the trip to Baton Rouge this year for Saban Bowl II. Needless to say, I'll be eating plenty of Ramen Noodles to make up for the cost, and I want the trip to be great.

So, this is a post asking for any advice from anyone who has been down to the Bayou. I'm getting in Friday night, and will be there until Sunday. Additionally, if anyone else is going down it would be great to meet up for a drink or something (there's safety in numbers).

Thanks in advance for your help.

Where Do You Stay?

SouthernComfort34 — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 11:29:10 -0000

We all post and read each other's posts almost on a daily basis. I think it would be cool for all of us to say (or admit) where we are all from and living now. I doubt anyone lives near me, but maybe a few of y'all live in the same area and never even knew it.

I'm originally from Huntsville, but now I go to school in Maryland. I can't wait to come back to the heart of dixie to settle down.

Roll Tide! Beat UT!