WE JUST DON’T ACT LIKE THAT DOWN HERE

There was a blurb on the news a few days ago about looting and rioting taking place in Los Angeles after the Lakers won the NBA championship. For quite a while now, we’ve been hearing about rioting, looting, etc. whenever a community’s sports team wins a championship. Not only is such buffoonery taking placed at the professional level; it has also taken place at the college level. I seem to remember some issues in Columbus Ohio, College Station, Pennsylvania, and others.

The University of Alabama football team is the national champion for the 2009 NCAA football season. Was there any rioting, looting, etc. in Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, or any other place in Alabama? There was not. If there was, believe me, we would have heard about it. When the BCS Championship game came to a close on January 7, 2010, Alabama fans were hugging each other and yelling Roll Tide. And yes, a few were doing the Rammer Jammer cheer.

Alabama ended a six game loosing streak against it’s cross-state rival, Auburn, by beating AU 36-0 in Tuscaloosa in 2008. As far as I know, there was no rioting in Tuscaloosa or anywhere else. The wife of an Auburn assistant coach complained that a group of Alabama fans blocked her from entering the visitor’s dressing room. When that game was over, I couldn’t find any Auburn fans to thumb my nose at because they had all left.

There are some heated college football rivalries here in the southeastern United States: Alabama/Auburn, Alabama/Tennessee, Auburn/Georgia, etc. After these games, I’m sure there are some bloody noses, fat lips, and black eyes. I’ve even heard about flat tires, damaged cars, and other things. Of course, none of this should happen, and I’d like to think these incidents are few and far between with alcohol excessively consumed.

I’ve been going to Alabama games for years and have had minimal problems. At an Alabama Georgia game one year, an upset Georgia fan threw a whiskey bottle into a crowd and I was in close proximity. Also, I had some Auburn fans try to block me from getting out of Legion Field a number of years ago when the Iron Bowl was still being played at Legion Field in Birmingham. Again, it’s just minimal.

But breaking into stores, stealing, looting, and setting fires? NO. We just don’t do that sort of stuff down here.