Crimson Cry
There’s Planet Earth and there’s wherever this Paul Finebaum Show caller in full denial about Georgia’s national championship is living
Poll the citizens of earth. Ask them a simple question: Was Georgia the best college football team this season, yes or no? Participation outside of the lower 48 is going to be scant, but the percentage of respondents who answer “yes” will almost certainly be north of 85%. By late September, it was clear that Georgia had the best team in the nation. That doesn’t always stick in college football, a sport that looks to 19-year-old boys for consistency, but Georgia didn’t waiver. They kept their foot on the throat of (almost) every team they faced, their only bad game all season coming in the one game, the SEC Championship, they knew they could afford to lose. It seems like almost every year, the national championship trophy comes with some sort of asterisk, but this year it feels complete, earned, accurate.
Not according to Fred from Alabama, however.
Had Paul Finebaum Show producers been scouring the airwaves for this exact sort of sociopath all week? You betcha. Was Finebaum almost too eager to dig his hand into the cookie jar, barely restraining a grin as he asks “do you have family members that look after you”? Yes. But Fred, come on buddy, pull it together. Georgia’s national championship is not null and void because they were missing their two top wideouts. So was Ohio State in the Rose Bowl, and they figured it out. That’s just sports.
But it’s Fred's voice-cracking hysterics that really push the whole thing over the top, off the other side, and on down into crazytown. “YOU NEED HELP!” he shouts back at Finebaum, who had just finished telling him “you need help.” As soon as the other guy starts shouting your own insults back at you, you know it’s time to stop the fight.
Incredibly enough, Fred is not entirely alone living on the distant moon known as Alabama fandom, untouched by the light of reality for over a decade. So let’s not belittle him or berate him. Let’s comfort him with clear eyes and full hearts. Welcome back to earth, Fred. Watch that first step, it’s a doozy.