The Iron Bowl is over, and boy am I glad

Most people in this state have spent the last year since Alabama’s 55-44 victory in an oddly defenseless 2014 Iron Bowl looking forward to the next one.

Your friendly neighborhood sportswriter, for one, is glad the 2015 edition is done.

A lot of football fans like games in which one team has everything to play for and the other has nothing to lose.

I am not one of those football fans, but in recent years, we have seen just that.

The 2013 game featured the Kick Six, a football phenomenon which shall apparently be relived and replayed at every opportunity forevermore while the ages roll into eternity.

The Kick Six is a play unlike any other I have ever seen on a college football field.

It is unlikely we will ever see a play like it again, but the hope for it depends on what colors you wear and where your loyalties lie.

It ruined the Crimson Tide’s national title chances, which made it that much sweeter for the fans on the Plains who were clad in orange and blue.

Monday, two years to the day from the famous (or infamous) play, many an Alabama fan probably felt his or her stomach sink when he or she logged into Facebook and saw a depressing Iron Bowl status as the day’s memory post.

That’s just the way rivalries are, and it’s the way they’re supposed to be.

They say you can throw out the record book in a rivalry as grandiose as the Iron Bowl. 

Whoever they are, I believe they are correct.

It’s happened time and time again.

Bo goes over the top to beat Bama.

Bo goes the wrong way and Auburn’s stopped short.

Bama drives almost the length of the field with less than a minute to play and Van Tiffin turns the state of Alabama crimson.

Cam Newton breaks the hearts of Alabama fans everywhere when he orchestrates a masterful comeback complete with a touchdown pass to a wide-open Phillip Lutzenkirchen, who promptly broke out in a dance now known as the Lutzie.

Or how about Kenny Stabler’s run in the mud and Punt, Bama Punt?

When you’re born in Alabama, most of the time birth defines your allegiance in what many around here call the greatest rivalry in college sports.

If your team loses The Game — and no one is talking about Michigan-Ohio State — you’ll spend the next 365 days hearing about it.

If your boss is on a different side of the aisle than you, you just may call in sick.

My point is, to the fan, there’s a lot riding on those 60 minutes between the lines.

There’s a lot at stake for players and coaches, too, but a funny thing happened last Saturday.

After Auburn had done its best to knock off Alabama with a Herculean effort that included a second answered Prayer In Jordan-Hare, several players wearing blue were laughing and joking around with several players in white.

It was a sight I needed to see and a lesson I needed to learn. 

I quickly had enough thanks to the thousands of Facebook shares, each complete with another opinion on what happened in the picture below.

The fans were hyped for 365 days for the game, and I completely understand. I’m always ready to watch the Iron Bowl, though I stopped watching it with anybody who is not my Daddy years ago.

I would pretty much bet the players had it circled, too.

There was a lot to play for on both sides, and they left it all on the field.

It took me longer than I care to admit, but  aside from the occasional exception I’ve pretty much learned to leave it there, too.

The Iron Bowl is over, and it’s on to the next one.