In 1996, shortly after making the move from Mississippi to Northern California, I had the opportunity to attend the Stanford-Cal football game, known around the Bay Area as “The Big Game.” Outside of the region, probably the only Stanford-Cal game that remains fixed in memory was the 1982 game that saw Cal use five laterals to score the game-winning touchdown on the game’s final play, a play that will live in folklore by the image of the Cal player weaving through the 144-member Stanford band — which had assumed that the game had ended — for the final yards.
Not until Saturday’s Iron Bowl game between Alabama and Auburn had a game ended in such a dramatic fashion. Auburn’s Chris Davis, who returned a missed Alabama field goal 109 yards on the game’s final play for a touchdown, did not have to navigate through any bands, but given the stakes — a possible shot at the national championship — Saturday’s game eclipses that Stanford-Cal game in importance, if not in sheer absurdity.
By 1996, of course, the memory of the 1982 game was merely a conversation piece. The magnitude of the rivalry had waned. Neither team had a wining record going into that rivalry game which ended the season. Still, in the Bay Area, the meeting was hailed as the annual renewal of “The Big Game.”
Having so soon moved west from the South, where people will tell you football is religion without a hint of embarrassment, I was skeptical of the “Big Game” billing. My suspicions were confirmed before I even arrived at the stadium. Cal and Stanford fans were tailgating together, something that would never happen down South. What’s more, the “crowd” for the game was a shade over 40,000, far from capacity. Big Game? It was laughable. After the game, a 42-21 Stanford win, a spirit of mutual respect permeated not only the two locker rooms, but among the fans. “And they call this The Big Game?” I thought, shaking my head. Clearly, West Coast college football is inferior to that of the South, I concluded.
All these years later, my perspective has changed. While there is little question that football in the South — particularly the Southeastern Conference — is dominant, there is one aspect of Southern college football that I no longer consider something to be admired.
We saw the best evidence of its in the aftermath of Saturday’s Alabama-Auburn game. In that contest, Alabama’s senior kicker Cade Foster, missed two field goals and had another blocked. While he was not the kicker on the last attempt, the kick returned for the game-winning score, he was badly abused by some Alabama fans, who took the social media to threaten the kicker’ life.
A few samples:
“Drink bleach!”
“Cade Foster go die.”
“I’m coming for you, you gonna die tonight.”
And, finally, there was this from someone identified as Sarah:
“Cade Foster I’m gonna kill you and your family, just FYI.”
The last threat defies my long-held belief that females generally have a healthier attitude about sports. Women, by and large, tend to keep the game in perspective. They are able to maintain a sense of proportion.
Or so I thought.
A few hours after the game came a report from Hoover, Ala., that said a woman had shot and killed another woman, a fellow Alabama fan, who she concluded was not sufficiently upset over the Tide’s loss.
The last time Alabama lost to Auburn (2010), Harvey Updyke, an 62-year-old retired state trooper and fervent Alabama fan, poisoned the trees at Toomer’s Corner in Auburn, which had long been a place where Auburn fans celebrated a big win by showering the ancient trees’ limbs with toilet paper. Updyke was convicted and sentence to six months in jail.
There are some who are quick to argue that these instance prove that the Alabama-Auburn rivalry has become unhealthy. The charges are particular addressed to Alabama fans, whose zeal has reached a level of dangerous fanaticism as the Tide’s successes of the field — three national championship in the last four years — have escalated.
But as C.S. Lewis once observed it is often a mistake to judge a thing by its worst distortion. To suggest that most Alabama fans would approve of sending death threats to players, shooting fans who are judged to be insufficiently supportive of the team or poisoning the trees on the rivals campus is grossly inaccurate. I suspect that, if anything, the vast majority of Alabama fans are among those most horrified and embarrassed by that sort of conduct.
Still, these incidents are worthy of reflection. It should serve to remind us that these games should be viewed in the proper, healthy context as forms of entertainment. There is nothing wrong with becoming emotionally invested in our favorite teams. But when that enthusiasm becomes all consuming, when the outcome of any game tempts us to violence or cruel behavior, we have lost something far more important than a game.
When I recall that 1996 Stanford-Cal game, I see it in a far more favorable light.
What I experienced there were two teams and two fan bases who came together to celebrate a rivalry. It was a wholesome, genuinely enjoyable event.
It was precisely the sort of post-game environment we should expect.
Why it took me more than 15 years to understand that, I have no idea.
But what happened in the aftermath of Saturday’s Auburn-Alabama game certainly confirms it beyond any doubt.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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