When I first read the story linked to below, I was going to put it in the daily roundup post, but the more I got to thinking about it the more I realized it deserved its own separate post.
A story from the Desert News about Utah equipment manager Kelly Sharitt kind of has me fired up this moring. Apparently Utah's equipment manager grew up an Alabama fan but dropped his allegiance to the Tide while working at UAB after his boss had a "feud" with an Alabama basketball coach (no details disclosed.) The story says that "soured" him on Alabama (along with having a Barner wife.)
That's all well and good I suppose and it's a free country after all so I won't hold that against him. I know people that have switched football allegiances after a lifetime of fandom for silly reasons like getting married to a fan of another team...and we all know that's simply ridiculous given the divorce rate in America today. Though I personally don't understand the switching of allegiances merely because of where one attends university, it does appear to be enough of a cultural phenomenon that it's one I'm willing to accept. Personally, I've attended three different universities and Alabama remained the heart and soul of my football world no matter which campus I was on (and they all had FBS teams.) Like I said though, we see enough of switching at the college level to where I accept that it happens without question. Back to the story though....
The kicker though is that his family, alleged Alabama fans will be pulling for Utah because "blood is thicker than fandom." Now wait just a minute. Seriously? Their relative is not a player or a coach and they're going to pull against Alabama because of someone that has no bearing on the outcome of the game? See, I don't get that. We all know I'd be cheering for Alabama even if my dad was Utah's head coach, but maybe that's just me. I can understand someone cheering for their current employer over their fan allegiance because, hey, we all gotta eat, but the family members I just don't get.
As if this that weren't surreal enough already, Sharitt worked for Louisiana-Monroe last year and keeps a game ball in his office from that debacle with the score on it. And his alleged Bama fan family also pulled for La-Monroe at BDS last year. Then to take things up a notch, Sharitt and his wife wore La-Monroe gear to the Independence Bowl last December for our game against Colorado.
Seriously, this band of Bama haters must have their bragging rights stripped away posthaste.
ROLL TIDE FOREVER!