Are You Serious?! Roll Tide Edition

As long as I can remember, I’ve been saying “Roll Tide,” as a celebratory yell, a confirmation, a greeting and sometimes in place of an “Amen.” If someone doesn’t return the greeting I find it supremely annoying and borderline disrespectful. If you are a true Alabama fan, you know that when you hear those two words, you should immediately respond with the same words or a slight variation of them. You should never look at someone with a face of confusion, fear or annoyance. So, you’re in Panama City Beach and you are annoyed that you are hearing too many “Roll Tides?”

Are you serious?!

If you want to get away from rampant college football yells, I wouldn’t recommend driving down to “PCB” for Spring Break.  Thousands of Alabamians, many of them Tide fans, head down to Panama City Beach in droves every spring and summer to get their tan and drink on.  I can promise you that the Roll Tides I distribute directly correlates with the number of Alabama Slammers I’ve consumed. Technically, an Alabama fan shouldn’t be blamed for this. Drinking makes you happy and so does college football. It seems almost scientifically correct when a drunk person shouts out “Roll Tide.”

I’m an outgoing person, and if you go out in public wearing an Alabama shirt, I can pretty much guarantee I will shout “Roll Tide” at you. In Paris a few years ago, I saw a young man wearing a vintage Alabama t-shirt, and being the redneck I am shouted, “Roll Tide,” in his direction. Not only did he speed up and walk away, he looked annoyed; much like the author of the Tweet above. However, was he not the one that decided to wear the shirt?  I know he didn’t find it at a Parisian gift shop.

Two similar events occurred during a trip to New York City. Walking through Central Park, I politely ignored the skinny jeans this scruffy man was wearing and responded only to his Alabama t-shirt. I gave a loud “Roll Tide” and I got nothing. I said it again and again and it was if I was speaking in a foreign language. I wanted to rip the shirt off of his back.

On the same trip I was on the ferry from the Statue of Liberty to Ellis Island, and saw crimson and white on a man with his wife and two kids. I gave him a friendly – albeit quieter – “Roll Tide,” and he looked horrified. He grabbed both of his children around the shoulders, gave me a half-smile that seemed to say “please leave my family alone,” and slowly made his way across the boat.

Here’s what I love.  I purposefully wear Alabama t-shirts anytime I travel, especially in airports. I get countless “Roll Tides” in the Atlanta airport and even some while I was in Vegas a couple of weeks ago.

Annoying as some people may find it, it’s nice to hear a familiar “Roll Tide” if you are traveling through Europe, on top of the Stratosphere in Las Vegas, putting your hand in the mold Tom Cruise created in Hollywood or on the subway in New York. I would never find that familiarity annoying. It doesn’t matter what season it is or where I am, if you give me a “Roll Tide,” you’re getting one back with a smile on my face.

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