News Article: Auburn wrap-up: Tide followed the example set by its honorary captain

[JessN]

Share
 

Auburn wrap-up: Tide followed the example set by its honorary captain
By Jess Nicholas
TideFans.com Editor-in-Chief
Nov. 30, 2008

The tone for Alabama’s 36-0 shellacking of Auburn wasn’t set by a big defensive stop or a 70-yard bomb to Julio Jones. It was instead set by a running back whose eligibility expired 18 years ago and whose life in the years since has been a hell no one would wish on his worst enemy.

Siran Stacy’s career at Alabama has long since faded into the past, but his name was fresh on Alabama fans’ lips last year when he lost his wife and all but one child in a horrific car accident. His story of extreme grief and trauma was known to most everyone in attendance Saturday, Auburn and Alabama fan alike.

Stacy returned to Tuscaloosa Nov. 29 to serve as the honorary captain for the game. As the team captains broke from the coin-toss huddle, and Stacy’s name was called out over the public address system, he turned loose the hand of the small child he was escorting – his last remaining child, a daughter – and began to do something that was perhaps the most profound thing that has been done in Bryant-Denny Stadium in years, perhaps ever: He first began to trot, then run, then skip – skip, like a child on a playground – down the west sidelines toward the north end zone.

For those of us who saw Stacy play, we didn’t even need to close our eyes to see him in a uniform again. We’d seen his routine before. He might as well have been wearing a helmet and jersey with “27” written across both.

Here was this man, who must have been so broken by the terrible experience of that accident, skipping down the sideline, pirouetting a couple of times and exhorting the crowd to join him in his exuberance. It was, quite simply, a display of absolute and raw courage. Many in the crowd tried, unsuccessfully, to suppress tears as they saw it unfold, and it left a few to wonder if this was perhaps the first time Stacy had returned to his old self – if only for a moment – since the accident occurred.

It would be impolite to dishonor the memory of Stacy’s fallen family by comparing it to the outcome of, in life’s grand scheme, a meaningless game of sport, but to not acknowledge the parallels would also be a disservice to what the Alabama team accomplished shortly after Stacy departed the field.

While there was no terrible accident to have befallen Alabama’s football team over the last six years, there has been a mountain of adversity. From wayward coaches to NCAA scandals to incompetence on the sidelines and a general lack of talent, the last six years has been the perigee of Alabama football in regards to its relationship with its traditional rival (and foil) Auburn. Auburn, like any good team, took no pity on Alabama these last six years. Saturday, Alabama returned the favor.

But it was not the beating itself that stood out, although the case could be made for such. Instead, what stood out was Alabama’s transformation.

For the past six years, Alabama has played the underdog role because it fit. Alabama never played with confidence, and always seemed to play with the admission that Auburn was the better program.

The key word in that sentence is “was,” because it is no longer. The roles have reversed; the last is now first again and the first is last. Alabama beat Auburn Saturday at its own game, with its own weapons, in a methodical fashion that served not only to grab Alabama’s 12th win against zero losses, not only to cap off a perfect regular season, not only to end a string of six straight losses to its hated brother – it also delivered a simple message to Auburn’s entire program: Step aside.

It has been noted this season that Alabama head coach Nick Saban has ended, or at least curtailed the careers of many he has coached against. Clemson’s Tommy Bowden? Fired. Tennessee’s Phil Fulmer? Forced to resign. Mississippi State’s Sylvester Croom? Quit. And there are at least three other coaches who went from positions of power to fighting for the lead position on the hot seat. Time will tell if Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville succumbs to the same forces.

As for Auburn, it already has. The new battle cry of the Tiger fan is “six of the last seven,” but to say such ignores a trend that appears to just be getting started. If Alabama dominates the field in recruiting this February the same way it did the field of play from August through November, it’s a trend that will be years, if not decades from reversing.

Saturday, Alabama came out of its cocoon, and like the monarchs and viceroys that go through the same process in their cocoons every year, Alabama came out a different creature than it went in. Regardless of what happens this next week against Florida, or in whatever BCS-level bowl game in which Alabama lands, this team is as different today from November 2007 as napalm is from ice cream. It’s even different than the program it was Friday night.

As for Siran Stacy – here’s to him, to skipping down sidelines, holding his daughter’s hand and proving that the human spirit is indefatigable, that man can go through hell on one side and come out the other and be alive again. Regardless of what Alabama did Saturday, Siran Stacy showed himself to be a winner. The Crimson Tide then joined him in proving the same thing less than four hours later.