Alabama Football: Forget One "R" Word, Just Restore Order

The 2016 Alabama football team will travel to Oxford, Mississippi for their SEC opener against the Rebels on Saturday. Just don’t use that one word.

ICYMI: Crimson Tide Opens as 8.5 Point Favorite Over the Rebels

You know that “R” word I’m referring to, Alabama football fans. I’m not even going to use it here. From here on, that word will be referenced as just that. That word.

I know the recent losses to the new money program in the SEC has stung the past two seasons. In the grand scheme of things, those losses didn’t even matter.

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Two SEC championships, two College Football Playoff appearances with one national title will tell you they didn’t matter. “That word” is used by second and third tier programs for motivation. Some of those programs couldn’t find Atlanta during the first week of December if you dropped them off at the junction of Interstate 20 and 75. We play one of those teams this week.

I heard a stat on the radio today. Since 1964, Alabama has racked up 19 conference titles. Ole Miss? Zero.

This game isn’t about “that word”. It’s just another game to get past on Alabama’s schedule. To the team that has chicken fingers and potato salad from Wal-Mart flowing in “The Grove” as freely as their hate for an NCAA investigator, this is their Super Bowl. If they tell you otherwise, don’t believe it.

When you’ve had 11 wins versus a program since the first game was played between the two back in 1894, you tend to play up for that game and forget about the remaining schedule. Memphis, anyone?

Have fun and talk smack, Tide fans. Just don’t use “that word”. Just tell them Alabama is headed to Oxford to restore order.

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