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Bama News
Make sure you're angry about Alabama for the right reasons
The main reason to be disgusted by Jamea Jonae Harrisā death should not be your dislike of Alabama athletics
deadspin.com
Alabama is the perfect villain for so many reasons, and Iām not even referring to the Brandon Miller situation. Fans of college athletics wouldāve inevitably found a reason to hate this Crimson Tide squad, and if they couldnāt find one, theyād have created one. People are so sick of seeing the football team win that theyāre triggered by the mere success of other sports under the same umbrella.
Ohio State gives off a similar vibe. These schools are institutions that have been so prosperous the general public is conditioned to be skeptical of their practices. We view them like Big Pharma or Big Tech or any other industry that is perceived negatively if you put Big in front of it.
And āBama is the Amazon of Big Academia. We want to believe that the universityās success is directly tied to all thatās wrong with college athletics. āThey bought every title from Nick Saban to Bear Bryant, so why is the 2022-23 basketball team an outlier?ā āThe only reason Miller is on the team is that heās on the payroll.ā (Never mind Millerās dad played football for Gene Stallings and met his mother when in Tuscaloosa.)
The Tide are tearing through the tourney. Theyāre the only 1 seed that hasnāt been tested. Miller didnāt score in the first round yet the team put up 96 points and won by 21. The outside perception is that Alabama is wielding the Force with the power of the Darkside, and its influence has expanded to hoops.
Thereās only one school that SEC fanatics occasionally wonāt root for during out-of-conference play, and itās Alabama. The rest of the time, the rest of the country is venomous with their disdain for all things houndstooth. Thereās a mob mentality involved that Iām not nuanced enough to communicate accurately without setting off someoneās cancel alarm, so weāre going to skip that section.
What Iām trying to get at is itās just a college, man. Itās OK to hate Tuscaloosa, but thereās no need to be the guy who goes too far in his rage and is out there poisoning trees. Donāt let it consume you.
āBama is a great villain, one of the best in the history of sports; right up there with the Russians. However, Iāve found that you can cripple yourself with anger simply by thinking about how unfair life is. You donāt have to let it go, you just have to know how much to let it affect you.
I get through each day with largely the same approach. Iām secure enough to know who sucks, educate myself enough not to waver, and numb enough to the discourse not to be bothered. The key is finding the perfect mix of alcohol and THC to effectively turn off your brain for a few hours a night.
I can separate my feelings about Alabama from my uncertainty surrounding what happened with Miller. It sounds and looks terrible, but I was never going to celebrate the Tide winning this tournament, no matter what happened off the court.
You should never feel good about the death of a young woman, but using it as fuel for your dislike of a school is doing exactly that. If you want to hate the situation because of what it says about the value of human life in America, or the impact of guns on public safety, or another worthwhile concern, thatās fine.
A life is bigger than the trivialities of fandom, and itās important to remember that.
