Having grown up in Alabama myself, I had to appreciate the following lines from Warren St. John’s hilarious book Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer (fellow college football fans will understand):
“I grew up in Alabama-possibly the worst place on earth to acquire a healthy perspective on the importance of spectator sports. If you were a scientist hoping to isolate the fan gene, Alabama would make the perfect laboratory. People in Alabama have a general interest in almost all sports-the state is second only to Nevada in the amount of money that its citizens bet on sports, despite the fact that in Alabama, unlike Nevada, sports gambling is illegal."
"But the sport that inspires true fervor-the one that compels people there to name their children after a popular coach and to heave bricks through the windows of an unpopular one-is college football. A recent poll by the Mobile Register found that 90 percent of the state’s citizens describe themselves as college football fans. Eighty-six percent of them pull for one of the two major football powers there, Alabama or Auburn, and 4 percent for other teams…To understand what an absolute minority nonfans are in Alabama, consider this: they are outnumbered there by atheists.”
All I can say is: Roll, Tide Roll!
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