Beautiful Brutality in Tuscaloosa | TigerFan.com

tirk · Dec 29, 2011

(year in review from grantland)

now this is how you write poetry.

Beautiful Brutality in Tuscaloosa

The Eric Reid interception on the goal line in Tuscaloosa. Ripping the
ball away from a bigger man midair. Don't blame the tight end; there
was no way he could've been prepared for that. It had never happened
to him before, not at practice and not in high school and never even
in the street or parking lot as a kid. The final score of the game was
9-6, so the big play wasn't going to come on offense. But it almost
did. Michael Williams almost caught the ball. I felt elated after that
play, elated that one team had done something to distinguish itself
from the other, but I also felt grief for Saban and Jim McElwain. The
first time all day they show some daring, and they get burnt for it.
They blinked, I suppose. Fear of the futility of running normal plays
against LSU coupled with fear of your kicker's ineptitude. The Alabama
receiving corps is lacking this season, which is probably why the best
one of them, Marquis Maze, wound up trying to throw a touchdown rather
than trying to catch one. The ball floated, which is expected on these
trick plays in which non-quarterbacks are asked to throw. It floated
just enough. The LSU-Alabama game was one during which you kept
waiting and waiting for something other than brutality (not that the
brutality wasn't impressive and inspiring and even beautiful), waiting
for something else. What else, though? That's the thing. There was no
way to know what else until it happened. And then it did. Alabama
strained its offensive character, and an overshadowed defensive back
who on most teams would be the star of the secondary turned in a play
for the ages.
— John Brandon
Click to expand...

JohnnyTiger · Dec 29, 2011

Grantland is a neat little site. I can't think of anywhere else to find sports writing like that.

Cordelia · Dec 29, 2011

Nice.

lsu_dane · Dec 29, 2011

Darn. I thought this was gonna be another thread about tirk's avatar.

JohnnyTiger · Jan 11, 2012

BCS National Championship Game: What the Hell? - The Triangle Blog

More Grantland goodness. I found the following to be particularly amusing. Harsh, but amusing:

Somewhere, on one of those winding forest roads that are always showing up in Michelin commercials, a deer frozen in the headlights of an onrushing Subaru Outback devoted the final second of its short life on earth to the thought: You know what, I’m still running the speed option better than Jordan Jefferson is right now.