Bama title puts Saban in same breath with Bear

Published 8:31 am Sunday, January 10, 2016

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">I understand your angst.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It’s a tough one.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But I’m here to help.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The college football national championship is to be contested Monday night, must-see TV.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Alabama vs. Clemson.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">In our neck of the woods, it’s logical to pull for the Southeastern Conference side in the affair.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That S-E-C, S-E-C chant really, really gets on the rest of the country’s nerves, which makes it all the more worthwhile.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But there’s a problem.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It’s Alabama. No denying it. Can’t get around it.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Unless you’re a card-carrying Roll Tider all season — not that there’s anything wrong with that — it’s tough to just switch gears with the big enchilada on the line out in the Arizona desert.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">You think another national championship is going to make the Crimson Tide suddenly more cuddly and tolerable?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Probably not.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">So you’re wavering. Or just can’t bring yourself to do it.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Bama? No way. Can’t even fake it.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Besides, Clemson always seemed more like an SEC team anyway, didn’t it?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Any campus where the social focal point is the Esso Station has SEC written all over it.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">For Clemson, being in the ACC almost seems to be an accident of birth.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Clemson’s personality and undying allegiance to football over hoops almost seems to make it an ACC outcast.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">In a lot of ways it’s probably more SEC than South Carolina, especially with Steve Spurrier now gone.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And how can you not love a coach named Dabo?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">How SEC is that?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But, no, it isn’t.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Nice try. But don’t kid yourself.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Clemson may be an SEC wannabe, but it isn’t in the SEC.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">No matter how hard you try to adopt it and force fit it, if only for one night, it’s in the ACC.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">So there’s the dilemma.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Pull for Alabama? It’s not just Alabama. Maybe you’re still mad at Nick Saban for leaving LSU.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That’s not important now.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Believe me, this can work.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">You don’t even have to utter the dreaded words “Roll Tide!” A mere “S-E-C!” will do just fine.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Hear me out.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Never mind that Alabama is going to win anyway and you’ll just be wasting a lot of hatred only to be frustrated watching Saban hoist another trophy.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But this could work out for all the anti-Bammers out there (Auburn fans might want to just sit out this discussion).</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">For the rest, this could be worth swallowing hard for and cheering on the Tide.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">This pending championship could be the one that breaks the red elephant’s back.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">This could be the national championship — and, yes, Alabama will win it — that rips Bama Nation apart at its seams, with collateral damage near and far.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Alabama is going to win anyway, so you might as well enjoy the sideshow.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It could be bloody. Sadly, it could pit brother against brother, more likely the even more dangerous father-son spat that’s sure to ruin every Christmas and Thanksgiving dinner for years to come.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Nervous Grandma will try to set some ground rules, even put the subject off limits at the table, but no matter how much they try to avoid it, somebody will mutter something, feelings will be hurt and, next thing you know, the turkey legs will be flying, the giblet stuffing smashing against the wall.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And won’t that be fun to watch?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">So here’s the deal.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">They don’t like to talk about it much around The Capstone.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">They figure if they just ignore the 4,000-pound elephant in the room it will go away.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It won’t.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">When Alabama beats Clemson Monday night — book it, the Tide will — that will give Saban five national championships, four of them with the Tide after winning one with LSU before coming back to haunt the Tigers.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">At most places, that’s just more dancing in the streets.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">At Alabama, it’s a problem. A big problem.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It’s already been whispered around Tuscaloosa, though never in polite Tide company.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">A small-fry Tider might blurt it out sometimes and get a quick slap from his momma.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“Hush yo mouth, child!”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But a Bama victory Monday night, and it’s on the table, for all to see.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Is, uh … is … let’s just say it: Is Nick Saban Alabama’s best coach ever?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The complication: Is Nick Saban better than Bear Bryant?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Actually, they don’t utter the word “Bear” much around Alabama. That’s for outsider agitators.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">There’s some kind of obscure state law within Alabama that requires any reference to him as the full “Paul W. Bryant,” with jail time for forgetting the “W.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But it doesn’t change the question, and now it will have to be addressed, the dilemma no self-respecting Bama fan ever thought they’d face.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Nick? Or Paul W. Bryant?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Who you got?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It’s tough to keep track of the national titles Bama lays claim to, but apparently Paul W. Bryant won five of them in between strolls across Mobile Bay.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The old-time loyalists will dismiss the one Saban won with LSU, of course, leaving him one shy of blasphemy.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But Saban’s four at Bama will be in a span of just seven years after nine years in Tuscaloosa. Paul W. Bryant’s came in 25 years.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That’s a legitimate argument. That’s a recipe for bloodshed among Tide fans.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The split figures to be along those always-nasty generational lines — those who actually saw Paul W. Bryant and religiously watched his grumbly weekly TV show, and those who know only the museum piece.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It’s an argument with no right answer, and it will soon be the Tide’s problem.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Oh, the humanity.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Bring popcorn.</span>