Werd to your mutha.
Please don't take this as any kind of excuse. It's just sports.
NMSU had a very good Group of 5 club. They came into JHS riding a 6 game winning streak, and nothing to lose. Let's face it, we weren't very good. Certainly not good enough to take a week off against anybody.
After the Iron Bowl, I was talking with former Bama MNC Quarterback, Steadman Shealy. (Shameless name drop) He said, "As soon as Auburn got off the bus from Arkansas, they started watching film on Bama. As soon as New Mexico State beat Auburn, Bama put in the Georgia film."
He said, don't think that's not exactly what happened. NMSU was a tune up for the Iron Bowl. Auburn was a tune up for the SECCG.
Steadman. Man, I wanted to hate that guy but it was so hard. Despite his "bammerness" he wasn't a bad person. Hard to loathe.
I had a friend who idolized him. Wanted to be like him. Had his jersey. Tried to mimic his motions. When we played backyard football that guy was always QB, always wore the Steadman jersey. I still had my rag-tag 21 (Hames Brooks). I liked nothing more than playing middle LB, and blowing his narrow butt up when he tried to run the option.
Our games were brutal back then. No pads, no helmet, full tackle, all of us grown 16, 17 year olds. I'm surprised people didn't end up in the hospital. Played every weekend rain or shine on an intramural field that was marked off. We had four pretty established teams with 15 or so players so there were replacements for people who got their bell rung or a knee busted. Man, that was fun. My "real" football experience was ruined by a crappy coach, but I loved that. Loved the hitting. Loved getting hit. Same as baseball, I was there to bleed.
It got ruined when a bunch of 20-ish former jocks decided they wanted to play and the brutality got ramped up to an unacceptable level. We weren't clotheslining people or going after knees. These guys were.