Don’t blame fandom for Toomer’s Corner oaks poisoning
Let's keep the blame for the poisoning of the Toomer's Corner oaks where it belongs. (Associated Press)
The temptation among some in this whole sorry Toomer’s Corner oaks affair is to shake their heads and say, “Those crazy Alabama fans,” or huff and puff about SEC football and its fans being out of control.
But it’s patently unfair to take the actions of one individual who uses his fandom for a college football program as an excuse for destructive behavior and lay them at the feet of the school or blame the intensity of big-time college football. Just as it makes no sense to take anyone who commits a shocking crime and somehow attribute it to his race or religion or make the leap to blaming it on society in general.
Remember the guy who threw security into a tizzy and briefly shut down the Atlanta airport a few years back by running down the “up” escalator, and how some idiots tried to use it as an opportunity to bash the University of Georgia simply because he was a Dogs fan on his way to a game?
That was illogical and unfair, and so is blaming the University of Alabama, Crimson Tide fandom, the Alabama-Auburn rivalry, the SEC or college football in general for the poisoning of the oaks.
I like the way the Senator put it at Get the Picture (though I have to sanitize it for a family newspaper’s audience): Sometimes people behave like complete [jerks] simply because they’re complete [jerks].
IT’S NOT TOO LATE…
I speculated here a while back that for those young Dogs fans who haven’t been able to afford the minimum “buy-in” level of a Hartman Fund contribution to get season tickets, the aftermath of a disappointing season might make this the year to make the move.
And, indeed, it looks like donations to the Hartman Fund, aka the Bulldog Club — which entitle the donor to buy season tickets — must be flagging this year. The donation deadline was Tuesday, and yet two days after that a notice was put up on Georgiadogs.com that “If you have not yet made your 2011 contribution, please donate today to ensure you receive season ticket priority for the 2011 season.”
In other words, the deadline has passed but they’re still soliciting donations.
Even if you don’t want to buy season tickets for 2011, a donation of at least $100 to the Hartman Fund makes you eligible to request tickets to the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game at the Georgia Dome between the Dogs and Boise State.
So what are you waiting for?
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— Bill King, Junkyard Blawg
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382 comments Add your comment
AUBURN MAN
February 18th, 2011
11:11 pm
AUBURN MAN tired now. Auburn man go to sleep,
adawgfan
February 18th, 2011
11:19 pm
Bill,
Surely you aren’t insinuating that $100 contributors will be eligible for tickets to the Boise game! That’s completely absurd, I’ve been a season ticket holder for 16 years and have yet to be eligible for anything other than “extra tickets” to UGA vs. Idaho state institute for the brain dead. I’m one of the donators who has decided that for my miserable $3000 I can go to the best games of the year not UGA vs. Fulton County HS.
stanky
February 18th, 2011
11:20 pm
Is anyone here?
DAWG
February 18th, 2011
11:22 pm
I just wanted to say……………….GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Dawgs!
dawg 777
February 18th, 2011
11:32 pm
Auburn man, drive your tractor in the barn and go to sleep.,cause PROBATION IS COMING!!!!
Emorydawg
February 19th, 2011
12:31 am
Poisoning the oak trees is criminal and the guy should get what he deserves. But I’ve always wondered about the Auburn tradition of rolling the trees, especially when they win. Where I come from rolling a tree, a house, a lawn is considered defamatory behavior, not to be confused with a celebration. Do those folks at Auburn know what toilet paper is for?
woebegong
February 19th, 2011
4:19 am
Well, football will start up again in September and until then, everybody have fun now, ya hear. Insult each other, each others school, but I think I am gonna enjoy my second favorite sport. NASCAR is on, and that substains my sport interest until football starts back up for real.
I lived in Alabama for a yr..seemed like a decade
February 19th, 2011
7:11 am
Bill, you are right about it being unfair to blame all Bama fans for Treegate..but my time in Dothan told me one thing..there is some serious hatin’ going on over there..and I promise you well over half of the Bama fans, if not 3/4..are tickled pink at this event and quietly condone it,even tho they wont admit it. What we call fringe fans, Bama and Auburn call normal fans. I think its because what the hell else is there to do in that God forsaken state? I once saw that there were over 1 million people in Alabama living in mobile homes. There are only about 4 million people living in the whole state ..think about that one. That would be like metro Atlanta having everyone in Fulton Co living in a trailer.
Squeezably soft Charmin TP
February 19th, 2011
7:15 am
Wow !I havent seen this many of my paper cousins hanging around since the last Auburn graduation ceremony when all of the diplomas were printed on TP.
Dawg Tired
February 19th, 2011
8:53 am
The man who did this tree poisening should get the maximum sentence allowed by law. What a dirtbag.
maddawg
February 19th, 2011
9:09 am
emorydawg,
100% agreed!!! I’ve always scratched my head about that too.
Bill, I don’t want to blame the whole Bama fan base but when I think of bamafan the first thought always comes back to how they treated Bill Curry. Rocks through his window, death threats to his wife and children, for sale signs stuck in his yard. I’ve seen first hand, every school has a mixture of classy and gracious fans and we all have our morons. the morons are usually the younger crowd, students etc.. This guy was how old??? As the guy who lived in bama for a year said, they are a different breed over there!!
wpww dawg
February 19th, 2011
9:16 am
I dont care what anyone says, that is some funn crap!!!
jon lanz
February 19th, 2011
9:31 am
I hope the trees die. This is pretty damn funny if you ask me. To hell with AU and Nick Fairley. Do you think if someone hit Nick in the mouth he would bleed to death?
7576DAWG
February 19th, 2011
9:35 am
Bill
I have been following AJC sport’s blog’s for about a year now and I vote this one as the most worthless topic on the sport’s bog’s at AJC. It was OK to bring this topic up but you should have done it mid week and it should have stayed up for one 2 or 3 hour period one morning and then taken off. You have 8 pages of Auburn and Alabama fan’s saying absolutely nothing. I read about 2 or 3 comment’s and then scanned the other’s and no more than half a dozen stayed on topic or they were completely worthless.
A lot of Georgian’s like to follow sport’s and for you to end the week on something that should have been hashed out in the state of Alabama and in their papers is mind boggling . You are a better reporter in the state of GEORGIA than that.
jon lanz
February 19th, 2011
9:41 am
Shut up! Bill can report on anything he wants. You are an idiot. Good job Bill.
Buckeye
February 19th, 2011
9:52 am
If this life in the SEC, it’s good to be s Buckeye 1-9 and all.
CBS, Sunday 1PM. Tune in.
5150 UOAD
February 19th, 2011
10:21 am
still going I see Auburn Fan.
jon lanz
February 19th, 2011
10:21 am
Be honest with yourself. You are laughing your ass off and hope the trees die. I know I do. LMAO
5150 UOAD
February 19th, 2011
10:22 am
Auburn Fan sure has a complex or something.
5150 UOAD
February 19th, 2011
10:25 am
Auburn fan
I wouldn’t make toilet paper from the trees. I like using WDE feathers or BBB aka Uga VIII’s dead fur pelt to wipe my butt. AHAHHAHA
James
February 19th, 2011
10:39 am
Nice article, Bill. This guy is a moron. Some pranks are funny. Those that cause permanent/irreparable damage are not.
papadawg
February 19th, 2011
10:44 am
I’m not a Auburn fan but I hope this Knothead spends alot of time in jail as well as paying for these trees.
Dumb dawgs
February 19th, 2011
10:45 am
I wonder if UGA will kill another English Bulldog this year. UGA has a history of mistreatment of their mascots.
Dumb dawgs
February 19th, 2011
10:46 am
Nick Fairley made a lot of UGAG fans cry and wet their pants.
Dumb dawgs
February 19th, 2011
10:48 am
Here you go crybaby UGAG fans.
http://www.amazon.com/University-Georgia-Bulldogs-Logo-Diaper/dp/B002KML1DG
Dawg Tired
February 19th, 2011
11:38 am
duh – to be fair, you should say SOME UGA fans are complete morons. Howevr, such precise thinking tends to be beyond some … duh … uh… morons.
jon lanz
February 19th, 2011
12:44 pm
Good thing someone poisoned the trees because there wont be much rolling next season. Newton took a pay cut and Fairley had to leave because he never went to class. He speaks worse than Bo Jackson which says a lot. LMAO
Dumb dawgs
February 19th, 2011
1:40 pm
“He speaks worse than Bo Jackson which says a lot. LMAO”
Hershel Walker couldn’t even read.
Bathtub Corner Shelves | BATHROOM CADDY
February 19th, 2011
2:17 pm
[...] google_color_link = "0000FF"; google_color_text = "999999"; google_color_url = "191919"; Bathtub Corner [...]
Toomer's Corner Trees Poisoned-Likely to Die (merged threads)
February 19th, 2011
10:35 pm
[...] [...]
dawgfacedboy
February 21st, 2011
11:37 am
If the punishment for crimes were as harsh as possible then people would be less likely to commit them.
The justice system is a joke.
SEC fan
February 23rd, 2011
11:34 am
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