9/11/01 was obviously a day that altered politics, governance, security, religion, mankind’s view of itself, and the psychology of being a citizen of Earth, in both seen and unseen ways, here in the USA and around the world.
But a day not even a month after 9/11 shattered my own personal sports lens just as completely. October 6, 2001. Georgia 26 UT 24. The “Hobnail Boot Game.” I was 16, Tennessee had the most talented football team I had ever seen (I still think the 2001 UT team beats the National Championship team of 1998 head to head). That loss showed me that Neyland wasn’t impenetrable which is something I fully believed at that point. (I’m not gonna count the 2000 Florida “loss.” We all know Gaffney didn’t catch that ball). It was also the game where I began to mold the clay of thought that Fulmer (and Chavis to an extent) were not elite in game decision makers. That clay was hardened in the kiln that was the SEC Champ game loss to LSU later that year. It’s the game that made me hate prevent defense. It’s when I realized it might not just be UT and Florida in the SEC anymore. It took my childhood football fan innocence and began to turn me into the man that eventually developed chronic BVS.
I’m ready to get back to the point where we own Georgia for a decade, like we did in my formative years of the 90s. That is when I will know UT football is truly back. Soon may that day come.
Thank you for attending therapy with me today.