Greg Byrne becomes a legend: Dixieland Delight is back

Spend my dollar (ON BEER)

Parked in a holler ‘neath the mountain moonlight (ROLL TIDE)

Hold her uptight (AGAINST THE WALL)

Make a little lovin’ (ALL NIGHT)

A little turtle dovin’ on a Mason Dixon night (something something AUBURN)

Fits my life (AND LSU)

Oh so right (AND TENNESSEE TOO)

My Dixieland delight...

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That’s pretty awesome, isn’t it?

If you’re coming to homecoming this week, you’ll get to witness it again.

After a very unhappy four-year hiatus, Dixieland Delight makes its return to campus — just when a banged up Alabama team needs all the support from its 100,000-strong 12th man that it can get. And with its return, Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne becomes the second-most beloved man in Tuscaloosa.

There is a caveat, a trade-off if you will, the requirement that we keep it P.G.

Surely, enough of us can do that, right?

Everyone from NFL stars to legends still on campus are excited about this decision. And they should be. And you should be: It’s fun; it makes a great visual in the stadium; and, objectively it’s a great song.

But, we cannot — to use a pun here — we cannot “fuck” this up. Its survival relies upon a very vocal majority playing nice. And while we here at RBR can all can get behind a hearty fAU, let the students have this one. Scream “beat Auburn” as loud and as long as you want to...and provide enough good-faith compliance to buy them some cover.

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But why the switch, one is tempted to ask — looking a gift horse in the mouth, as we are wont to do.

After listening to a few weeks of whining about student attendance, we very publicly suggested to Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne that perhaps make the gameday atmosphere a little more amenable to students by treating them like adults: In exchange for butts in seats in the fourth quarter, he had the power to overrule the pearl-clutchers and let Dixieland Delight ring throughout Bryant-Denny Stadium again.

Besides, we have long-reasoned, why let the faux outrage of Barners back in 2014 dictate what we do and do not permit in our stadium? Why piss off the next generation of Alabama boosters — the people that will be buying your Tide Pride seats in the years to come? In other words, dare boosters with super sweet seats and decades of skin in the game to just walk away from the most dominant dynasty in college football history. Think they’ll take their checks and give up the 9th-row 40-yard line over some drunken students having a blast? Me either.

We even offered to draft a pro bono memorandum of understanding between the parties...and I am not a charity.

Did that help? Who knows.

We’re not vain enough to suggest that those talking points, expanded upon quite nicely by AL.com’s Joseph Goodman, were responsible for last night’s surprise announcement to reinstate Dixieland Delight.

Maybe the tens-of-thousands-strong, hand-delivered petition to Greg Byrne had a hand in it. Maybe the several meetings with the Greeks and the SGA did the trick. Maybe it was everyone’s cumulative efforts that made Byrne understand that he is the boss: Not Finus, not a few dozen complainers (and it was never more than that, from what I’ve been told,) not butt-hurt Auburn fans, not Bill Battle. Maybe it was flagging and low-energy student attendance that weighed heavily on him. Maybe it was a strong suggestion by the Shadow Director of Football Ops herself, Ms. Terry. Maybe he got tired of his twitter feed being bombed for demands of Dixieland Delight.

Maybe it is being in the job just long enough such that Greg Byrne is comfortable exercising his considerable veto power over the old guard. And maybe it’s his legacy. No one wants to go down the annals of Alabama history as another Steve Sloan.

But, whatever it was — and it’s likely a culmination of it all of these things and more — someone listened to the clamor from students and fans and convinced Byrne he had the clout to reverse the most reactionary, knee-jerk move of the Battle administration, and that he could do so without recriminations.

We’re guessing that someone probably owns a growing Mercedes empire, is worth about a hundred million dollars, is the greatest coach in college football history, wants students in the seats for the fourth quarter, and just so happens to have a notorious potty mouth himself.

So, keep it clean. Keep it fun.

There’s always room to fAU — but just not this during this song.

Deal?