Pledging Allegiance

Here in the South, there are a few things that are just understood.    When it snows in the winter, you are required to go to the Bi-Lo and buy as much milk, eggs and bread as you possibly can.  You watch the Braves whether you like baseball or not.  When you ask for tea, it is understood that it is supposed to be sweet.  And in the fall, you have a college football team you root for.

Until I got into high school, I had never really met anyone that denied having a football team.  I'm sure I had, but I never thought about it.  It just seemed everyone I knew had a team they were a fan of.  My guess as to why college football is so popular in the South dates back to the mid 1800's.  When the War of Northern Aggression was launched in 1861, the people of the South set up a Confederate government that hinged upon states rights.  This government had many flaws and, in fact, some Southern states even tried to secede from the Confederacy because they believed they were being wronged.  The people of the South have immense regional and state pride and I believe it stems from the "Us-versus-Them" mentality that was fostered by the War.  Today, people identify with their state/school and this is where I believe the intense "fandom" comes from.  

But I digress.

I am a Tennessee fan.  I didn't choose the team.  I didn't  pick them because I came of age in the 90's when they were very dominate.  I didn't choose them because they played in the SEC.  I didn't pick them because I like the color orange.  I follow the University of Tennessee because some of the first games I remember seeing on our TV (that got 12 channels) were Tennessee football games.  Those games were on there because my dad turned them on.  He was watching them because he always had.  He started following them because his Daddy listened to them on the radio in their home when my father was young.  My grandfather didn't buy a TV until my dad was in high school.  Being a farmer, he never had much time to watch.  But when he did the Braves and SEC football games, more importantly UT games, would be tuned into.  You see, allegiances are passed down.  Inherited.  That is just good form.

Teaching and coaching  middle school boys, I hear about sports all day.  Who won last night, who plays tonight, who likes which team, who hates which team, and who has tickets for this Saturdays game.  One thing that I am seeing as a trend is that most student age kids nowadays have multiple "teams" i.e. " Oh, yeah, I watched that game last night.  That's my 3rd favorite team!".  These ideas are very foreign to me.  Isn't the point of having a favorite team stem from the fact that they are your FAVORITE team.  I have taken more class time then I should probably admit to correct the error of these adolescents' ways.  They will thank me one day.
The fact is, I feel blessed to have the father I did, to have been raised watching football in the Greatest Conference in the Milky Way galaxy and having born witness to things like Stoerner's Stumble, Peyton's Naked bootleg at Alabama, Draining the Swamp in '01 and watching Fulmer hoist a crystal ball in '98.
As a Tennessee fan, it is my right and duty to disparage every Georgia, Alabama and Florida fan whenever the good Lord gives me an opportunity.  But what really puzzles and disappoints me is when I see a father and son who have gone their separate ways in the area of fandom.  What went wrong in that house?  By God's grace, I plan exercise the admonishment of Proverbs 22:6 with my sons.

"Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." 

In summary, just like who your daddy likes.  It is what the Lord intended.

So let it be written, so let it be done.