Fellow Georgia fans, I love you, guys. I really do. I am one of you. Hell, I live in Athens and rock a Georgia tattoo. In fact, I would go so far as to say we are a family of sorts. Not the type of family that has logged decades of trauma bonding over having to endure Grandpa Frank’s racist rants while you’re just trying to watch two 7-4 teams battle it out in the Egg Bowl every Thanksgiving, but the type of family that has collectively trauma bonded over the type of heartbreak (cough…2nd and 26…cough) that will change a man forever. We might have never met, but we get each other.
So, it comes with all the love and affection in the world when I ask you to please stop the whining about having to play Alabama in Tuscaloosa next season.
Please. I beg you.
I do not care that playing at Alabama in 2024 will require Georgia to play in Tuscaloosa twice in a row without a return visit. Let’s not forget that Alabama also had to play in Athens twice in a row without a return trip in 2008 and 2015 as a result of the last round of conference expansion. Where you as outraged over that injustice? Or is it your turn to play the selective outrage card that you ruthlessly mock other fan bases for falling back on?
When Alabama drew the short stick during the last round of realignment and had to play in Athens, did they act like a bunch of toddlers? No, they just came into our place and whipped our ass.
I do not care that with trips to Tuscaloosa and Austin and a neutral site game against Clemson on the 2024 slate, the Georgia home schedule once again looks rather lackluster on paper. Why the hell are you blaming the SEC about that, anyway? As a season ticket holder and donor myself, I do understand the frustration, but you’re barking up the wrong tree. If you are looking for someone to blame, direct your ire at the Georgia athletic department. Those are the people that continue to take the money from the city of Jacksonville to play the Georgia-Florida game in Florida every year and who, for the same financially-motivated reason, continue to schedule additional neutral site non-conference games on top of that, annually gutting the home schedule in the process. Greg Sankey didn’t hold a gun to Josh Brooks or Kirby Smart’s head and force them to schedule a neutral site game against Clemson as opposed to playing it in Athens. They did that all on their own.
All this whining about “fairness” makes our fan base collectively sound like the snot-nosed kid from the rich family in the neighborhood that everyone hates because he always cries and shouts “that’s not fair” when he doesn’t get his way.
Look, I understand your outrage over the Dawgs having to play in Tuscaloosa does not stem from fear, as the Georgia haters of the world are eager to suggest, but rather from a violation of your sense of fairness. I get that. But perception is reality and the haters out there are desperate to blur the lines between the perception of our program and the current reality of our dominance. We have ascended to the apex of the college football mountain, which means everyone else is looking for any ammunition they can find to bring us back down to Earth and those of you trafficking in this juvenile nonsense are giving them exactly what they crave.
Is that what you want to be? Do you really want to be like the fan bases that try to explain away their perpetually humble station in the college football landscape with sad, pathetic rationalizations about imbalanced schedules, or vague accusations about “cheating,” or whatever else it is that poverty programs say to explain away the sad realities of their existence? Do you want to be exactly like all of the other programs that you have spent the past two years mocking relentlessly?
Is the principle of the matter worth creating the impression that we, as a fanbase, are scared to play Alabama? Because that is exactly what you are doing by whining about it so vociferously. I know that is not what this is really about, but you are giving every other fanbase in the country copious amounts of ammunition to call us every variation of cowardly they have the brain power to dream up when you continue to scream bloody murder about it. Have some pride, suck it up, and approach it with the “anyone, anywhere, anytime” mentality that King Kirby projects.
You are the two-time defending national champions, damnit. ACT LIKE IT.
Whether the 2024 schedule is “fair” or not, have some pride, suck it up, and approach it with the “anyone, anywhere, anytime” mentality that King Kirby projects.
Stop with the pathetic whining.
YOU ARE BETTER THAN THIS.
WE ARE BETTER THAN THIS.