“Stomp the Chomp” – Alabama vs. Florida

Our last match-up with the Gators would be one that will always live in our memories, but we have quite a bit of history with the Gators.

My first true memory of the Gators was back in 2005.  We were undefeated, and our own Tyrone Prothro had made one of the most amazing catches in history the game before

Behind the back of a defender, and then rolled hanging on to it…priceless

The match up against the Gators was going to be amazing…they were determined to beat us and ruin our perfect record, and with Tim Tebow  sitting a few seats down from me in the recruiting section (yep, in case you forgot, he was an Alabama recruit before he went to Florida), we wanted to prove we were the school for him, and of course be the best in nation ;)

Anyway, our beloved Prothro went to make a catch in the end zone and went down and unfortunately didn’t get up.  My recruit that game immediately said, “he snapped his ankle”.  I, along with the rest of the Bama Nation was heartbroken.  Prothro was not only a talented player, but an amazing person and although NO ONE deserves to go through that, he certainly didn’t deserve it.

I remember everything being completely silent except for a group of Florida fans that started doing their Gator Chomp and cheering.  I was so angry and disgusted at that moment that ANYONE would be so classless to cheer when another player got hurt…much less an injury that bad (it unfortunately was a career-ending injury and one that almost killed him due to surgery complications) 

The only high point of that game, our boys were disgusted too and ended up winning the game keeping our undefeated season alive (which unfortunately was ended later :( )

Ever since then, I have had a bitter taste in my mouth when I think about the Gators.  We met back up with them in 2008 for the SEC Championship and we unfortunately lost BUT we came back with a vengeance and dominated the Gators during the 2009 National Championship game.

This would be the first time we had played them in Bryant-Denny Stadium since 2005 and although they felt like they had a lot to prove after us beating them in the SEC Championship, but after a viral video popped up on YouTube of a Gator fan trash talking and even applauding Prothro’s injury, the Bama Nation had their own agenda.

Anyway, the day and the game was pretty uneventful, except that we won (and Alex and I got not 1, but 2 bourbon baths thanks to the girl behind us…oh the joys of the student section:)  My dad took a ton of game pictures (you can see them in my Picasa Album), but I only took a couple of pictures with my boys…

   

As always, I’m proud of my Bama boys….ROLL TIDE! :)