Bulldogs meet Bama while conference championships dot slate
Brian Burnsed,
Last Updated - November 28, 2012 5:39 GMT
I grew up near Atlanta.
I’ve been an avid sports fan since I was first able to formulate a sentence.
Taken alone, neither of those statements means much; change the city and those characterizations probably describe you. But, when merged, those sentences carry a nauseating truth. To be a fan of that city’s sports teams during the past two decades means that you’ve endured enough late-season drubbings that “above average” and “very good” have become the acceptable standards, the inescapable constraints of fandom.
The Braves, of course, went to the playoffs 14 consecutive years and made 16 postseason appearances in the past two decades, but emerged with only one World Series title. The Falcons have now made the playoffs five times in the past decade; they’ve won two games. In the 1990’s, the Hawks made the playoffs seven consecutive times – they never made it past the second round. This year, the current roster stands to make its sixth consecutive trip to the postseason – and, you guessed it: They haven’t made it past the second round.
That’s a lot of playoff appearances. That’s a lot of “above average” teams that had “very good” seasons. They start to take their toll, to add up, to convince you that B-plus and A-minus are not only acceptable, but are the standard and that a 4.0 is out of reach. You become placid, content in your place in the sports pecking order, and you comfortably enjoy years filled with far more victories than defeats, but that are utterly devoid of true satisfaction. And there’s seemingly no escape. Fear of slipping from very good to mediocre has held many Atlanta teams hostage, keeping them from making significant changes and suffering short term pain for long term gain. “The status quo is good enough and we’re so close, so we’d better not take any risks,” they think.
Which brings me to the football team at Georgia — and my point …
Though I root for Georgia Tech, I empathize with the Bulldogs’ fans plight all too well and will watch Saturday’s SEC Championship Game against Alabama with the slightest sense of solidarity. Just like the recent vintages of the Braves, Falcons and Hawks, UGA has been exquisitely above average – sometimes very good – for a decade. But it’s not viewed in the same way that the likes of Florida, LSU and Alabama are. The Bulldogs haven’t pitched in to the SEC’s national championship streak; they’re the first one in line outside the exclusive club that houses the conference’s elite.
But now, the Bulldogs, thanks to a hard-fought upset of Florida and a favorable conference schedule, find themselves at No. 3 in the BCS with a game against No. 2 Alabama looming. They get to play that game only 70 miles from campus. They’re only 60 minutes from breaking through the barrier of “very good.” They’re 120 minutes away from, finally, being considered the best team in the nation. Granted, those 120 minutes stand to come against the nation’s two stingiest, most-disciplined defenses, and a national title, which is so close, still feels so far away.
I know the feeling.
And one man has presided over all of those recent, “Hell of a season, but …” years. Mark Richt has won 117 of his 156 games on the Georgia sideline. He’s guided the Bulldogs to a pair of conference titles, but they came before the SEC was the “S! E! C!” and the conference started hording national championships like they were Twinkies after Hostess declared bankruptcy. Richt’s teams, averaging 9.75 wins during a 12-year tenure, have been the epitome of “above average” and “very good.”
But unlike the rest of us who’ve grown to accept being swaddled in regular season wins and playoff defeats, many UGA fans have grown weary of winning division titles. Richt has been on the alleged hot seat, at least in the minds of people who call into sports talk shows, for what feels like half of his tenure. College football evokes more fervor than professional sports, especially in the South, so despite all of his wins, despite fitting in with the “very good” Atlanta pro sports teams, Richt has had to endure a cascade of vitriol through the years.
But a win on Saturday erases it all.
Make no mistake, Alabama is the better team. The Crimson Tide probably will win and Georgia will probably slip back amongst the ranks of the Braves, the Falcons and the Hawks: the very good teams from the South’s biggest city who serve as entertaining speed bumps when championships are on the line.
But though I was born to love Tech and loathe the Bulldogs (sorry, I had no choice in the matter), should they beat Nick Saban’s defending national champion squad, a little part of me will smile.
While my brain will tell me, “Roll Damn Tide,” on Saturday, part of my heart, the sliver of it I left in that city, will hope that all of those Bulldog fans will get to forget what above average feels like.
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