Good morning, y’all. We are enjoying some turbulent Spring weather this week. Slow moving rains followed by high winds, yeehaw! I’ve taken the opportunity of bad weather to lounge in my office at the rec room and re-read some of my favorite authors while trying to weasel some tickets to the GDay game.
One of my favorites is a good ol’ Southern boy. The beloved bard, Lewis Grizzard, who once expressed his love for Bulldog football through his character Dorsey Hill.
“Dorsey Hill thinks when you die you go to Vince Dooley’s house. He can’t wait.”
Like being infatuated with the prettiest girl in school, my affection for the Bulldogs exposes me to the complete range of human emotions. A win is like the most flirtatious smile, causing the heart to soar to indescribable heights. A loss is like the love of your life breaking up with you in front of 90,000 of your closest friends. A tie is like, well, “kissing your sister”. While kissing your sister is acceptable behavior in most of Alabama, it’s just not satisfying for the rest of us.
My current bout of angst has been triggered by Georgia’s inability to play at a consistent enough level to be in the college football playoffs each year. This past year we not only lost out on being called to the playoffs, we lost the SEC East title to the handbags from Florida. That is truly injury added to insult.
“Next year” is when the Georgia faithful believe we will return once again to our rightful place atop of the national football rankings. “Next year”, always becomes “This year” before you know it. Spring practice has begun in Athens, “Next year” has arrived.
Why do we otherwise normal hard working sane members of society link our emotional well being to the physical exploits of 18 to 21 year olds? Perhaps my cousin Bodean can provide an example.
You may have seen Bodean and his brother Buck on the sidelines of the home games with the tops of their bald pates sporting the Georgia bulldog in full color. Bodean shaves his head clean the night before and begins “makeup” three hours before kickoff. Fortunately, Bodean has a short commute to Sanford stadium from his Dacula home. Dacula is notable as the site of many game day Klan demonstrations in years past.
While Bodean has strong “conservative values”, his love for his Bulldogs is far stronger than his personal prejudices. Bodean fought long and hard against his neighbors to stop their weekend rallies on the route from Atlanta to Athens. Bodean surmised that any potential recruits coming from the Atlanta area would see a rabid group of Klan members in full sheeted glory and assume they were not welcome to the area. Bodean was more than willing to put his personal prejudices aside if it meant his beloved Bulldogs could recruit the top talent in the country.
Over the years Bodean has evolved to the point that it would be “just fine” if Herschel Walker wanted to move in next door to him.
The ability of college football to unite differing cultural types, to give common aspirations to a community, and to allow the students themselves the opportunity to appreciate teammates coming from different backgrounds is without parallel. There can be no better example than my Georgia Bulldogs.
As my Dawgs prepare to get their bodies and minds tuned to begin another Fall campaign, I rejoice that the Corona numbers are looking good enough that we might actually have a “normal” season this year. I am thankful to medical science that they have provided us all with a “next year”.
