Unnecessary Defense: Losers With Socks

It’s posts like this that make me want to puke. The blog Losers with Socks - a reference I don’t get - has taken a couple or three pot shots at the Tide and its fans. I’m titling this “unnecessary defense” because it’s silly to engage the Big Orange loving blog, but I feel compelled to do it anyway.

Let’s talk for a moment about titles. Everyone loves to beat up on Alabama about the 12 national titles claim. There are a plethora of ways to determine who’s won a title (prior to the advent of the BCS in 1998). For the purposes of our discussion, we’ll limit Bama’s titles to the 9 universally recognized (1925, 1926, 1930, 1961, 1965, 1973, 1978, 1979, and 1992) and let Frank Thomas spin in his grave about the 1934, 1941 and 1945 titles.

Before he gets to his “3 Reasons Why Bama Sucks”, the author kicks off the insult fest:

Teams like Yale, Colgate, Army also have storied programs and their fair share of championships, but do you see their fans constantly bringing up things that no one even remembers or cares about?

The last of those programs won any sort of national title when Army won the Boand, Football Research, Helms, Houlgate, and Poling national titles in 1946. In the intervening period, Alabama has won seven titles by the most restrictive definition and another three if you count all possible titles (the 1966, 1975 and 1977 titles). This is why we talk about titles and they don’t. Additionally, if you count only titles since 1901 (which is generally recognized as the “modern era”), Yale has won three titles (1907, 1909, 1927) and neither of the other schools has won more than two.

This comparison fails.

So, let’s get to his three “reasons”. First, that “there’s an excuse for everything”. There are some within the vast umbrella of Bama fans that like to make excuses. He elaborates:

In the last 8 years, I have heard every reason conceivable to man why Alabama is horrible including “scholarships being cut”, “If Brodie hadn’t been hurt”, “We had a bad coach”, and it just keeps going. Those are great excuses, but the reason Alabama is losing so much is that they’re just not good. Case closed.

Yes Alabama wasn’t very good. But the “excuses” cited are reasons Bama wasn’t very good. Certainly, we weren’t very good. Anyone who has any sense knows that scholarship reductions contributed to this. As a matter of fact, that’s the reason for scholarship reductions. Clearly (as the author points out himself), Mike Shula wasn’t a great choice for head coach. Clearly, our starting QB being hurt impacted our ability to move the football.

Simply pointing out reasons why Bama wasn’t successful is a sign that someone is thinking about the program - not necessarily excuse-making.

The second reason - “They don’t quit talking”. He says:

I will say that after the UL-Monroe debacle, they did go into hiding for a few hours, but the next day the NASCAR stadium was full and beers were still being sold so you knew they were alive and kicking.

I believe a fan of an institution in Tennessee is giving the Tide fans a hard time about being rednecks. Our fight song includes lines about the Rose Bowl. Theirs includes lines about “smoggy smoke on rocky top” and includes “ain’t” half a dozen times. For your approval:

Corn won’t grow at all on ROCKY TOP
Dirt’s too rocky by far;
That’s why all the folks on ROCKY TOP
Get their corn from a jar.

OK. I feel better.

To the meat of his complaint, yes, we are a vocal fan base. We vehemently support our teams. There are those among us who are too quick to anger and too quick to talk about our greatness. I’m sure there are no fans like that on Rocky Top.

The final argument: “They refuse to deal with facts”:

Consider these facts, and because it seems to really bother Alabama fans, I will use Auburn in my comparisons: In my lifetime of almost 30 years, Alabama is 13-16 against Auburn. In that same period of time, Auburn has won more SEC Championships, been undefeated twice, and beaten Alabama more times than they’ve lost. Do you want to know what the typical response to these facts are? “Roll Tide”. Powerful.

OK, we’ve had a rough patch against Auburn. There’s no challenging that. We’ve had some tough years and they’ve had some good ones. Auburn has been undefeated twice in that span - once they were on probation and they other year, they were denied a chance to play for the title (at least partially because their schedule included The Citadel - a 1AA team). Alabama also won a national title in that timeframe - something our friend would prefer to forget.

Additionally, my count has Auburn with five SEC titles, and Alabama with six (since 1978). Tennessee also has 5 in that timeframe. So, those “facts” lose some luster.

I’m guessing that the real reason he didn’t want to compare Alabama with Tennessee during that stretch has something to do with the 14-14-1 record each school sports against the other during his arbitrary 30 year timeframe. I am including the 1993 17-17 tie in that list; officially, Alabama forfieted that game due to Antonio Langham’s ineligibility.

At the end of the day, I can respect the man’s passion - but his fact checking department needs a spanking and he needs to worry a bit more about hurling rocks in his glass double-wide.

Share and Enjoy: