Alabama players have a tradition that involves keeping a wrestling belt on the sideline. When a player makes a big play, they are awarded the title belt. We saw this after Bama's Ryan Anderson recovered his second fumble of the night against Clemson in the second half of the National Championship.
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This belt isn't easy to obtain.
"It gets competitive," said fifth-year senior lineman Dalvin Tomlinson via 247Sports earlier this week. "It makes you work that much harder."
Two years ago in April, we first received word that the Ball Out belt was a brand new thing.
.@reggieragland is the ball out champion. pic.twitter.com/IN1ZO2n9AJ
— Michael Casagrande (@ByCasagrande) April 6, 2015
And to be clear, it is a football thing and not a wrestling thing.
"The coaches (thought of it), because a lot of people weren't really stripping at the ball this past season and we had a down year with turnovers," Ragland said after practice. "That gave the coaches an idea for guys to start getting after the ball and get the ball out."
So literally a belt for getting the ball out, not a belt for ballin' out, though wearing a championship strap of any sort is conducive to the latter. It was hotly contested from the get-go:
Dillon Lee won the "Ball Out" belt this afternoon, ending Reggie Ragland's stint as champ. Lee is a two-time winner this spring.
— Charlie Potter (@Charlie_Potter) April 8, 2015