An Ode To Swag: Saying Goodbye to Dre’ Kirkpatrick

SWAG <swag> (n.) – 1. The way in which you carry yourself. Swag is made up of your overall confidence, style, and demeanor. Swag can also be expanded to be the reputation of your overall swagger.

2. (n.) See “Kirkpatrick, Dre.”

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First, a disclaimer. This writer is unabashedly Caucasian. He owns an SUV. His house actually has a picket fence. He has a tragic lack of rhythm.

But those unfortunate Swag-less facts only make him appreciate former Alabama defensive back D’Andre Lawan Kirkpatrick – Supreme Commander of Swag Nation – all the more.

You see, Kirkpatrick is Swagga-licious.

His car (a black Dodge Charger with Swag-tastic super-dark tint and a sound system most clubs would charge a cover for) actually has “SWAG” emblazoned on the fender stripe.

If Kirkpatrick were a flavor of ice cream, he would be Swagstachio.

If Kirkpatrick walks without a strut (which has never been documented), it is only because he has commanded that a non-strut is temporarily more Swag than the Swag status quo.

If Kirkpatrick met Dos Equis’ Most Interesting Man in the World at the club, the latter would soon be enjoying some Courvoisier and learning from the Swagmaster himself.

Yes, Dre Kirkpatrick really is that Swag.

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Kirkpatrick wears No. 21, which we are pretty sure is actually a nod to the Godfather Of Swag himself, Prime Time Deion Sanders – he of the supreme self-confidence many non-Swag peons in the world mistook for cockiness.

Much like Jay-Z has an Empire State Of Mind, Dre-Kirk lives a Swag State Of Mind 24-7-365.

And also like Prime Time, Kirkpatrick is poised to bring Swag 2.0 to the NFL.

Kirkpatrick showed his brand of Swag early and often at Gadsden City High School, terrorizing wide receivers with such regularity that Rivals.com and Scout.com awarded him five coveted Swag stars and considered him the nation’s top defensive back prospect in 2009.

When Kirkpatrick signed his National Letter-Of-Intent, of course, he did it full of his burgeoning Swag style – glancing the Texas cap on the table and remarking, “this hat right here. It don’t have enough swag …” to a national ESPNU audience before unwrapping a super-Swag black Alabama cap and setting it on his Swag-tastic head of braided locks.

Once his college destination was set, Kirkpatrick set about infusing staid Alabama with a heaping helping of Swag. It was a process that took time, too, as he sometimes was content to arm-tackle and occasionally got torched.

But Swag doesn’t fade, and Kirkpatrick only blossomed into the complete player Nick Saban saw in him from the start. As a sophomore, the arm tackles were replaced by a more complete technique that was helped by 20 extra pounds of muscle put on by Alabama’s ferocious Fourth Quarter program, and NFL scouts started seeing that No. 21 kid with the long hair shutting down entire sides of the field with his Swag/talent combination.

That wasn’t the only change in Kirkpatrick. Evidently, his unique brand of Swag is tailored toward natural leadership – as Kirkpatrick not only became the perfect bookend to DeQuan Menzie, but also a congealing force for all things good. He raced to help injured players off the field; he consoled others when they made mistakes. He even kept one teammate from perhaps getting his head ripped off by Saban after having the temerity to commit a mental miscue.

He even had to be pulled away from throwing Swag hands with LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson after Jefferson’s tackle of C.J. Mosley caused Mosley to dislocate his hip – something Kirkpatrick mistakenly thought was a dirty play that demanded some Swag retribution.

All that Swag, thankfully, wasn’t just lip service. It was Kirkpatrick’s singularly unique style/substance combination that helped mold the 2011 Alabama defense into not only the nation’s top unit, but also arguably the best defense in college football history.

Swag never dies, a poet wrote. It simply goes to get paid. Never has that been more of a truism than the case of D’Andre Lawan Kirkpatrick – Supreme Commander of Swag Nation. He may not be wearing a Crimson uniform anymore, but you better believe that Swag is writ in Crimson flame for all eternity.

And the Crimson Nation all can strut, whether it has rhythm or not, because of him.