We’re now NINE days away from having Auburn football again! I’m back today continuing the countdown of my top 10 favorite Auburn games of all time, here’s a lovely throwback to my sixth grade days:
#9, “Honk if You Sacked Brodie”
The year was 2005. Times were much simpler back then. When I wasn’t trying to find the radius of a circle or playing Animal Crossing Wild World on Nintendo DS, I was busy trash talking fellow sixth graders about college football. There was one particular Bama fan who always got on the Auburn kids’ nerves, I’m sure we were just as annoying, but one day he took my bologna sandwich and that was it.
This kid loved making bets with people, but cash was never on the table because we were all still preoccupied with counting our quarters to pay for ice cream in the lunch line. Instead of laying money down we’d exchange lunch items (that’s how I lost my sandwich). He wiped everyone clean and was the king of the lunch table, but all of this changed after the 2005 Iron Bowl.
The Friday afternoon before the game we were all talking trash, even the lone Tennessee fan at our table was jumping in on it. None of us had any idea what we were talking about, so of course that was when the stakes were raised.
I’d run my mouth off a bit too much and the enemy child suggested that if Alabama were to defeat Auburn, I owed him a week’s worth of sandwiches. Since I’d already lost one bologna sandwich to the kid I couldn’t imagine losing an entire week’s worth.
Twenty bucks.
That was the offer I put up. I knew I had a crinkled up twenty dollar bill buried beneath a ton of lip gloss and notes in my Vera Bradley purse. I’d been pocketing that twenty for a long time to buy Mario Kart for DS, if I were to get another twenty that game would be all mine.
In all honesty I raised the twenty because I never thought he’d agree, but he did and I immediately started shaking.
Fast forward to game time. The residential Auburn guru of our house (my dad) had traveled down to the game with his best friend so it was just me and my mom watching. We had a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle on the kitchen table that I was working on when the game started, but after half the puzzle ended up on the floor just 44 seconds into the game I was officially glued to the television.
You can easily guess what grabbed my attention. Wayne Dickens sacked Brodie Croyle at the Alabama 10-yard line for a loss of 7 yards. THEN less than one minute later Quentin Groves (RIP) took Croyle down at the Alabama 6-yard line for a loss of 8 yards. Pretty soon it was 4th and 24 for Alabama and the Tigers’ Sack Party was just getting started.
My mom had no idea why I was so excited during that game. I wasn’t the same die-hard Auburn fan back then as I am now. Mom, I know you’re reading this now. I was really excited because I tricked another 11-year old child into giving me $20. I know gambling is bad, but I couldn’t risk losing another sandwich, sorry.
Outside of the $20 and the fresh video game I had no idea how major the outcome of that game was until I saw “Honk if You Sacked Brodie” shirts and bumper stickers appearing everywhere. Needless to say, my love for college football was just getting started.
This article is dedicated to former Auburn linebacker Quentin Groves, one of my first Auburn football heroes who was taken from this Earth way too soon.
