Roll Tide/War Eagle

Last night ESPN debuted its documentary "Roll Tide/War Eagle". I like many others in the South was looking forward to hearing some great stories about the rivalry and getting a good history lesson. Having watched HBO do a similar documentary on Ohio State/Michigan and SCETV do a great documentary on USC/Clemson, I really thought ESPN was going to strike gold. Instead they delivered a huge disappointment.

In my opinion the Alabama-Auburn rivalry is the most intense in American Sports. Sure, nationally the Yankees-Red Sox might get more attention, but those 2 teams see each other multiple times each year. Duke-North Carolina is a great basketball rivalry, but The State of North Carolina has several other division 1 schools in it like NC State, East Carolina, and Wake. Alabama-Auburn is everything to The State of Alabama. The football game happens 1 day a year, but it is talked about 365 days a year. Both football programs are top 15 all time in CFB and both have 2 of the largest fan bases in the country.

ESPN did a decent job noting the importance of the rivalry in the State of Alabama. They did mention how important it was to the state's culture and how important college football was to Alabama Society during some difficult times,. They even showed a husband(Alabama fan) and wife(Auburn fan) to get an outside viewer an idea what split households are like in the state, something that is very common. The show misses after this though.

The problem I have with the documentary is that they relied far too much on the Paul Finebaum Show to showcase this rivalry. Certainly, Paul Finebaum has his place in this rivalry. He's the biggest media voice in The State of Alabama and he has certainly made a big name for himself. Callers to his show like Tammy and Legend help with the rivalry. Paul deserves a mention in the documentary, but does he really deserve to be the centerpiece in this documentary? After all, Finebaum is a Tennessee graduate. Yet, it seemed 50% of the ESPN show was dedicated to Finebaum and his callers. The end of the documentary even showed Finebaum signing off his radio show.

Finebaum's most controversial caller Harvey Updyke was shown on the documentary far to often. This is a man that faces legal charges for destroying two of the most important physical features to the Auburn Campus. Does the viewer really need to know what Updyke named his children? Updyke compared himself to Tommy Lewis! Lewis was a fullback that actually played for Alabama. Updyke is a white trash Alabama fan who is out of touch with reality. Did ESPN really need to spend so much time to prove that white trash fans exist in Alabama? White trash fans exist all over college football, the NFL, the NBA, and even in European soccer leagues. Giving Updyke so much time on the air is just going to encourage some other trailer park wacko to do something bigger than Updyke.

I think the thing that bothers me most about this documentary is that it seemed like those who produced it just started listening to Finebaum on XM Radio last year and learned about the rivalry through that show. The Iron Bowl is much more than Cam Newton, Harvey Updyke, and Paul Finebaum.

Updyke's name came up more than Bear Bryant and Shug Jordan! How is that even possible? Where was the mention of Joe Namath leading the Crimson Tide to a 21-14 win over Alabama and the eventual National Championship? The 71 game between the two schools featured two teams playing for a chance at a National Championship, shouldn't this have been given at least 5 minutes? The "Kick" in 1985 didn't even get mentioned. What about the fact that until 1989 the two teams had never met at Jordan-Hare? Who could forget the first Iron Bowl in Tuscaloosa in 99 years that was played in sleet? Men like Wallace Wade and Frank Thomas didn't even get noticed by ESPN in the documentary.

They didn't even do a good job of explaining the cheers behind the title of the documentary. The story behind the nickname "Crimson Tide" is one that should be told. They didn't even mention that the Eagle that flew over the stadium and died in 1892 was found by a civil war soldier and nursed to health. The War Eagle Story is one of the best mascot stories in all of American Athletics, but the producers didn't seem to care.

The only thing well done was the ending where they showed Auburn coaches and athletes helping out tornado victims in Tuscaloosa. I think everyone can agree that while the rivalry is very important to The State of Alabama, the kindness to those in need means much more in the long run.

ESPN has done some great documentaries in the past, but this wasn't one of them. This was a dumbed down version of America's best sports rivalry that deserved better than it got. The Iron Bowl has given us many memories in the past, far more than what 4 or 5 callers to the Paul Finebaum show might have to say each day.