Fightin' Words? Consider the Source

"Do you think spending the holidays in Shreveport two consecutive years is a reward? I lived in Shreveport for 14 months right out college and it felt more like a death sentence. I still have nightmares of having my car breaking down late at night in Bossier City. Medication and afternoons on a shrink's couch simply can't get me past this." - Paul Finebaum in today's Mobile Press-Register
It is tempting to get worked up when you read something like this, but let's take a breath. You have to know this writer's work. He's intentionally provocative. In other words, he writes stuff like this simply to incite a reaction. I tried something similar for a couple of years on the radio, but didn't have the stomach for it. I got tired of people not getting the joke. It wore on my wife and family that there was always someone mad at me about something Radio Darrell said. Even now, there's a local radio personality who stirs people up. Some people just don't like it. Others just don't get it.
From Finebaum's perspective, another trip to Shreveport could be a grind. For people here, the only thing attractive about a 6-6 Alabama team coming back to the Independence Bowl* is the opportunity to pretend we hate Nick Saban for three or four days. We don't really hate Nick Saban any more than Finebaum hates Shreveport. He was unhappy when he lived here and wrote for the Shreveport Journal. That was in large part because people didn't understand or appreciate his particular brand of sports wrting. He moved on. We moved on. He's basically been forgotten here, except on the rare occasion he tries to deposit excrement on our cake.
We can hate Finebaum for sport, just to be in keeping with the spirit of things; but then we're playing his game. Ignore him and he will go away, just like he did when he was fourteen months out of college. That's really the best thing we can hope for.
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*Alabama will play Colorado in Shreveport on December 30. Remember, this is the team that lost four games in a row to end the season, including falling at home to Louisiana-Monroe. So, now a joke is making the e-mail rounds:
BREAKING NEWS !!!!!!
The University of Alabama is going to decline the invitation to the Independence Bowl. Their travel agent showed them the route between Tuscaloosa and Shreveport. It turns out Alabama won't be able to go because they can't seem to get past Monroe.
Finally, keep this in mind: It was in vogue twenty years ago to make fun of the Independence Bowl. I hear Finebaum is up for a role in the big-screen version of the late, lamented TV show "Arrested Development." Sometimes, typecasting works.

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Leftovers From the Road

The nature of my last trip was such that I had nothing remarkable to eat. This is a major disappointment, since food and football are my guilty pleasures. Usually, I combine the two. This was a "go-go" trip, though. There was precious little time for anything but driving and the games. I left work early on Friday and got to New Orleans just in time for the job I had been hired to do. I ate take-out in Natchitoches on the drive and didn't eat again until I got some Cane's chicken fingers near my hotel about 10:30pm. Basically, the trip was hotel continental breakfasts, drive-through burgers and M&M's on the road.
The lone exception was a Tuscaloosa landmark, the Rama Jama, which is just across the street from Bryant-Denny stadium. The excellent greasy cheeseburgers and ice cold Diet Cokes might as well have been filet mignon after the game. By the time we got in there, it was late and the place was mostly cleared out. This was a blessing, because we got our food fresh and fast. At 10:00 at night after an Alabama loss, that's all you can really hope for.

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Ebb Tide

(Tuscaloosa, Alabama) - LSU's football team won another thriller, 41-34 over Alabama. This was an emotional day for LSU fans. Alabama's coach, Nick Saban, used to coach the Tigers. They canonized him when he led LSU to a national championship. Now that he's coaching the enemy, he is widely reviled in Louisiana. The hard-fought victory in Alabama does a Tiger fan good, I suppose.
This is my first trip to Tide Country, and I'm impressed. People were nice to me, the campus is pretty and Bryant-Denny Stadium is outstanding. I may be banned from the I-10 corridor for this, but I can say that at times this afternoon, Alabama's stadium was as loud as Death Valley in Baton Rouge.
A senior from Shreveport, Jacob Hester, scored a fourth-quarter touchdown to provide the winning margin. When that happened, the stadium was deathly quiet with the exception of the impressive pockets of purple and gold scattered throughout.
There's a funny little barb targeting LSU fans sweeping the Southeastern Conference. Someone has decided that LSU fans smell like corn dogs. As stupid as that sounds, it's taking off. At least two dozen times today, I saw LSU fans pass Alabama people who would say something like, "Hey, do you smell corn dogs?" It was kind of funny at first, but then it just became annoying. That's the point, I suppose. They had to have something to counter "Saban is a money-grubbing whore," which is something else I heard a lot.
Of course, the ultimate counter was the final score: 41-34 LSU. Smells like a victory.
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Oh, and what would a Daddy D trip to a football game be without photos with the mascots?

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