Well said

Amen! I don't post much but EVERYBODY needs to remember these are 18 year old kids that the vast majority of us don't even know whose lives and reputation are being destroyed over a game. No matter what color uniform they wear no one should get pleasure from the downfall of one of these kids. It doesn't make it right just because someone else started it.

Phillip, I joined this site because of your integrity, insights, talent for writing and passion for Auburn football. You never let us down. Good writing! I remember reading your dad's articles. You are a chip off the old block.... Thanks for telling like it is...

Agree Phillip......You see it posted on this board also...One side or the other has got to take the high road as you put it and stay the course in hopes the other will follow. If Auburn people really believe in the "AUBURN CREED" it will be AUBURN that takes the lead. I love the rivalry but I'am sick of this. I know what the other side has done and is doing. It's not the first time. That's been well documented but I have felt for some time what Phillip expressed in his post. The clock is ticking and that is a concern....

Auburn sometimes seems like the kid Ralphie in "A Christmas Story" who is taunted and picked on by red-headed (Crimson-headed?) Scott Farkas over and over until he snaps, then decides he's not going to take it anymore and wails on him. I think the "rivalry" is out of control, but only because we see it as a rivalry and Bama sees us as an enemy they are actively trying to destroy.

I would also add that when Bear Byrant kept the NFL out of Birmingham, he doomed this state to third-world mediocrity, while Atlanta turned itself into a world class city. I don't think anyone loves UGA any less because Atlanta has the Falcons. And once you have an NFL team, then it creates a feedback effect where you can grow big businesses (Delta, Coke, CNN,), concerts, restaurants, Olympics, etc. In Alabama, the moron Bama fans decided that all this state will ever have is Bama football. It's July and Bama fans are arguing football games from last fall. This is what we get, and it will never change.

Phillip, sometime AUC has to do more than critic the hatred that flows between UAT and AU. You and Bryan Mathews are regarded universally throughout the fan base. Doing more to show the regard that players have for each other might be a good start. Coach Saban may not be a likeable person, but I doubt that the snide remarks thrown his way are completely devoid of ill will. What more can be done is way beyond my scale of intellect, but allowing people to refer to our friends and rightuous opponents as "turds" hardly help matters. I may set a record of down votes with this, but to be honest with you, I don't give a s--t. I'd like to see the hate disappear because I have reason to highly regard both UAT and API (Auburn). The gift of life handed to me from both Universities is hard to overlook. If you think this is merely drama, forget it. I haven't lived in a completely safe sphere my 85 years.

They killed our Toomer's Trees, called our Tigerettes whores, had their gambling shill Danny Sheridan just trash us on national radio, tried to get Cam Newton ineligible, are trying to get our NC taken away, and are actively trying to destroy us, and you want Auburn to act nice? The problem is NOT that Auburn people aren't acting nice enough. I think we have acted nice and I think the overwhelming majority of the hate is flowing from the other side. It's not even within the same universe to think that Auburn fans acted this way after Bama won the NC in 2009.