SEC football fans are known first and foremost for one thing- often reminding you just how AWESOME SEC football is. Expect this trend to ramp up now that the Confederate flag is getting rapidly phased out of American culture.
The flag, often incorrectly referred to as the Stars and Bars, should have been relegated to the dust bin of history 150 years ago, but hey, better late than never.
To many, this flag simply represents “Heritage not Hate” and “American by birth, Southern by the Grace of God.” NASCAR’s attempt to eradicate the flag’s presence at their racetracks was met with a heavy backlash by these types of people.
This crowd obviously has cognitive dissonance about what the rebel flag literally is- THE corporate logo for a pro-slavery armed insurrection of white supremacists against the national government. If Dylann Roof and the Ku Klux Klan are waving your flag, then simply put, you have to stop waving that flag.
Right now.
Period.
Hopefully, South Carolina gets their act together on this. Mississippi too. The University of Mississippi, their athletic programs, and their overall brand, have a long troubled history with this flag.
As President Barack Obama succinctly put it today:
“For too long we were blind to the pain that the Confederate flag had stirred in too many of our citizens.”
“It’s true a flag did not cause these murders, but as people from all walks of life … we all have to acknowledge, the flag has always represented more than just ancestral pride.”
“Removing the flag from this state’s Capitol would not be an act of political correctness, it would not be an insult to the valor of Confederate soldiers, it would simply be an acknowledgement that the cause for which they fought, the cause of slavery, was wrong.”
“By taking down that flag we express God’s grace.”
The rebel emblem isn’t the only way Southerners express pride in their heritage. Most of the SEC football fans who incessantly remind us of SEC football success are doing the same exact thing.
College football’s bowl season is a subtle metaphor for the Civil War. Every December and January the national narrative is the same: the SEC vs. the Rest of the Country.
This dichotomy delights those from Dixieland.
They eat it up like fried chicken (more on this in a bit). The “S-E-C! S-E-C!” chant is a Southern fried version of the “U-S-A! U-S-A!” chant. SEC football fans believe their brand of athletics is superior to the rest of the country. And this is the first season in the last ten in which the SEC did NOT win a national championship in football, basketball or baseball. And as Southerners love to remind you, the league won seven football national titles in a row from 2007-2013.
You can see where southerners get the idea that their sports are graced by God. Just like many Southerners believe being from Dixie makes them special.
The Bible Belt braggadocio will now become consistently louder due to a confluence of three factors:
1. The explosive growth of college football.
ESPN will push the NCAA into having 8 teams in the playoff sooner rather than later. We’ve detailed the hows and whys here. Interest in the game has never been higher, as the Nielsen numbers verify. As college football takes off, so does SEC football. The subconscious Civil War narrative is pervasive during bowl season because it moves the needle.
Bowls try to pair up a team from Dixie against a Yankee opponent whenever and wherever possible.
2. With the Southern Cross kaput, Southern Pride gets channeled into other outlets
When the General Lee on “Dukes of Hazzard” removes the Confederate logo (as they just did), you know it’s history. That car/television program was more Southern than a mason jar filled with Lynchburg Lemonade on a porch next to a basket of Hattie B’s hot fried chicken and a 12 gauge shotgun.
Reruns of the show itself are now the latest casualty of this symbol of hate.
SEC football fans can be obnoxious at times, but rooting for a college football team is not an act of bigotry. Telling us how awesome Nick Saban is at life is not an egregiously offensive act.
Unless you’re an Auburn grad.
3. SEC football has been humbled lately
SEC football Media Days begin in two weeks. You know how the football talking season can be- long, repetitive and unoriginal. Expect lots of “can SEC football reclaim its recent dominance?” stories.
There will be a few questions and answers about the Dixie flag in Hoover, Alabama that week too.
Defensive SEC football fans = more SEC football Pride being vocalized this summer and autumn.
Of course, there’s other ways to express Dixie pride than just SEC football talk. We’ve got you covered there.
This Yank is performing an act of Southern hospitality by giving the South a new symbol of pride:
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/614487991755665408
It’s perfectly emblematic of The South, and it’s red, white and blue too. Also, not a coincidence that Big Fast Food Fried Chicken is in bed with the bowl system. Popeyes, Zaxby’s and Chick-Fil-A all sponsor bowls.
On the other hand, the flag may never be phased out of Southern life. The video linked here will tell you why it’s lasted 150 years, and it may last another 150.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
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