How many times has someone cheered for you?

How many times has someone cheered for you? If you played sports in high school, college or even professionally, you would be above the normal individual.

Earlier this football season, my best friend, Michael Snipes, and I attended an Alabama home football game. We are familiar with Alabama football game-day events because we have attended home football games for 25 years. Three years ago, after hitting the ripe age of 63, we decided to stop attending all the home games. We’re still loyal fans, but it’s harder to recover from the late-night trips. Such is the life of getting older.

We were spoiled over the past 17 years under Coach Saban, but his retirement had nothing to do with us stopping our trips. We’ve attended two home games over the past three seasons under Coach DeBoer — the Georgia game in Coach DeBoer’s first season, which was one of the best games I’ve seen, and the Florida State game this season. It was not the best game, but it was the hottest.

Michael and I wanted to watch the coaches and players do the Walk of Champions into the stadium, a pregame tradition we had not seen in a long time. We power-walked about a mile and a half from our parking spot to get to our spot for the Walk of Champions on time. Did I tell you it was hot? We arrived with a few minutes to spare.

The crowd was growing fast. People would accidentally bump into you, but they would only bump into Michael and me once before avoiding us like we had leprosy.

Michael is the only human I know who sweats more than me. People could see it pouring out of us, so we used that to get closer spots. As we walked forward, other Bama fans parted like the Red Sea after seeing our sweaty state. Someone shouted, “Here they come!” as Coach DeBoer led the way with the players in tow.

I only recognize a few players without their uniforms, but fans cheered for all of them. I noticed something very odd. Every player wore headphones and looked like someone had stolen their Halloween candy. There was no interaction with the fans.

The fact is only a few players will have a football career past their playing days at Alabama. No one is going to cheer for the long snapper when he’s on the field or the placeholder when he’s holding the ball for a field goal or extra point, but they are subject to getting booed for a poor snap or hold. Each game could be their last. My point is, if people are cheering for you, soak it up because all glory is fleeting.

On Oct. 8, 2024, SAEC deployed an outage restoration crew to Georgia to restore electrical service to a town slammed by a hurricane. It was dark when our crew arrived in the cooperative area, and the people of the town were lined up on both sides of the road shouting “thank you, thank you.” They held signs, and a band played in the background. Our linemen were not wearing headphones or looking like they had lost their best dog. They were smiling, shouting “Roll Tide,” videoing the entire event and telling those individuals thank you in return. The construction foreman, Jamie John, stated in the video, “I’ve never seen this before.”

The linemen hearing those cheers gave their all to restore those people’s power as fast and safely as they could. If those Alabama players would have listened to the cheering from the fans, maybe they would not have stunk it up in that first half. Just a thought.

In this month of Thanksgiving, I am honored to walk with our linemen and all employees of South Alabama Electric Cooperative. When power outages occur, our linemen and our entire staff know how important it is to restore your power. And if you wish to cheer, please do so. Remember, we can draw more flies with honey than vinegar. My advice to all sports players who wear headphones so they don’t hear the fans: Take them off. They are cheering for you. Be thankful for that.

This Thanksgiving, cheer for your family. God has blessed us all so much. Happy Thanksgiving.