Merry Christmas Crimson Tide

These are tough times. Financial and family pressures pull at us from all sides. Christmas is a wonderful holiday, but it often magnifies these strains as we balance getting our kids enough items so we don’t feel like bad parents with paying the power bill and putting gas in the car. Many times we find ourselves not only living paycheck to paycheck, but day to day with our to-do list growing faster than our done list. We think back to earlier Christmases. We remember Christmases when we were kids and the joy and excitement of that wonderful day. We think of the faces that are no longer with us. We think of Christmases when things were better, Christmases that came before mistakes we have made. Each day in December we inch closer and closer to Christmas. The days get shorter and the air gets cooler with a mixture of hope, fear, and regret.

So how in the world during this hectic season would group a young men, who are part of a football team make me smile? It’s simple, they are winning. I don’t personally know a single player or staff member on the Alabama Football team. I have no control over how well they play, their game scheme or even what flavor Gatorade they have in the cooler on the sideline, yet I’m happy when they win and whenever I think about this season, I smile. Why would I attach any emotion to a group of people I don’t know and to a game that I have not input or control in? It really doesn’t make sense.

Through years of cheering for Alabama, I have somehow connected myself in to their success. I haven’t contributed to their accomplishments in any way, unless you count my cheers at the North Texas game, the one game I got to attend in person this year, but somehow I think they would have pulled that one out without me. I would say that maybe they have benefited from my prayers, but that opens a whole other theological issue about praying for your team to win. I mean, I can see where it is okay to pray for Lane Kiffin to lose, but what about Tebow? Not sure I want to go there.

I’m not alone. Thousands of Alabama fans are smiling in the midst of stressful, difficult times, when they think about “The Drive” or Julio’s big play in the LSU game, or Ingram’s heartfelt acceptance speech at the Downtown Athletic Club. These fans, who are often disparaged for, “not ever having set foot on campus” should not be looked down upon, but should be celebrated. I think they should have full permission to find joy and encouragement from the endeavors and success of a team of players who they may not know, but for a Team they do know. While they (we) may not have individual bearing whatsoever on Alabama’s success on the football field, collectively we do. Without the millions of fans who never lift a weight, run a pass route or make a tackle, Alabama football as we know it wouldn’t be possible.

So this Christmas, in a way we’ve already given the Alabama Football Team our gift, it’s our support and passion, and while they have unfinished business in Southern California, they have already given their gift to us too. They gave it one game, and many times, one play at time each Saturday this fall. “Thank you Terrance for the blocked field goal, it’s just what I wanted!”