Saturday, Aug. 22, 2009

Guesspert: Book nails Vols fan's Rocky road

SORRY, SPORTS FANS. We can’t allow sports fans to watch games in the press box.

They even make a loud and clear announcement before every kickoff so there’s no confusion:

“No cheering in the press box.”

That’s because there’s only one thing worse than when a writer who’s trying to hide behind some dubious veil of objectivity cheers a team when things go well.

See, when things go badly — and eventually, every program hits that retaining wall at 200 mph — that homer is going to start crying in the press box.

But amazingly, one SEC football fan talked his way into covering his favorite program from the inside out. His goal was to write a first-person narrative about a glorious once-in-a-lifetime experience. He didn’t bargain on chronicling a season on the stink.

Clay Travis — a sports columnist for AOL Fanhouse and author of the 2007 book “Dixieland Delight” where he toured every SEC football stadium on gameday — spent the 2008 season with a green light from the Tennessee Volunteers athletics office to write about everything that happened under the Orange and White sun.

The result is “On Rocky Top: A Front-Row Seat to the End of an Era” ($25.99, Harper Collins’ It Books). Don’t think it’s a book only for the Knoxville faithful, though.

Any fan of SEC football will find food for thought on the themes Travis develops.

The book stands as football history, Southern history and family history. Travis’ grandfather played for the Vols’ in the 1930s, which offers a great window to show how fandom is passed from one generation to another in the South.

Travis isn’t content to merely be a fly on the wall who jots down what goes on around him. He engages people from different walks of life from the program. That we’re so exposed to their thoughts and opinions gives this book its value beyond what could have been first-person fanboy whining.

Senior running back Arian Foster represents the failed dreams of players who see their college careers come crashing; Foster’s mother stands in for all parents who follow their sons hopes and dreams from the stands.

A big-time booster tells his favorite party stories; an old-timer fan reminisces about playing for Genera; Neyland; a male ex-cheerleader tells how close he came from trying to tackle an opposing quarterback during a game to save a touchdown; and Travis rides shotgun for the man who drives the equipment truck from Knoxville to Columbia.

You’ll find that last one in Chapter 18: “Goodtime Charlie and the Football Funeral.” In hindsight, we know that Phil Fulmer’s loss to Steve Spurrier in Williams-Brice Stadium was the final nail in the coffin for his 17 years as Vols coach.

But going into the game, Travis was convinced by the pregame locker room talk that a loss couldn’t possibly be in the cards:

“With the fire coming out of the locker room I see no way this team can lose. I contemplate turning on my cell phone and telling everyone I know to bet their house on Tennessee’s football team. Phil Fulmer may be able to lead this team to a bowl game yet.”

But the season doesn’t end with a postseason trip. It ends with the hiring of Lane Kiffin, and the knowledge that SEC football — which was once a regionalized passion — is now a full-blown corporate enterprise.

Of all the figures who populate this book, the one who benefits the most from being humanized from his starting stereotype is Fulmer. Throughout the season, cretins on the Vols message boards paint him as the scapegoat for what's wrong with the program; they say the game has passed him by.

But Travis' candid conversations with the expelled coach at the end of it all show a man struggling to understand why his bedrock principals are no longer valued by those above him. Fulmer sacrifices his time and effort for the good of those who support his school -- for the good of individuals who he knows are not the beneficiaries the lavish compensation bestowed on an elite college football coach. But Fulmer is left in the wind because the people he reported in the athletics department went from being his partners to being his employers. And thus his ex-employers.

That conversation illustrates one of Travis' main themes: that college football has turned from Southern-fried regionalized pastime to global corporate entertainment.

“On Rocky Top” is the latest of a string of must-read books about the behind-the-scenes business of SEC football. Where Bruce Feldman’s “Meat Market” tells of the 100-hour work week toil of Ole Miss assistant coaches, Travis’ book is equally effective with a different knowledge.

Being an SEC fan is a year-round, 24-7 job. And if this year is a disaster, then wait’ll next year. Repeat for the rest of your life.

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