Finally, nearly three weeks after receiving, and two weeks after finishing the book, my review of Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer is complete. “Complete” in the sense of the word that “I finally plan on sitting my ass down and writing about this book before I forget about it for another week”, but complete nonetheless.

First off, let me say that my delay in writing a review for this is absolutely no correlation to how I feel about the book. In fact, if I had the dream writing tool, the “BlogFromMyBrain-o-Matic 3000”, I would have finished the review the moment I finished the book. This book is damn good. For real.

As anxious as I was to receive and start reading the book, I was also starting to become a little skeptical. The portions I read leading up to actually having a copy in my hands seemed to emphasize the same few points of interest, and I was really starting to wonder if my apathetic feelings toward Alabama football might cause the book to get an official “eh” rating. Even going through the introduction, I was beginning to wonder exactly how many of the 275 or so pages were devoted to “the couple who even skipped their own daughter’s wedding to see an Alabama game!!!” From the early readings, Vegas set the over/under at 186. Fortunately, for all the build-up, they played no bigger role in the story than anyone else in the book.

While the story of the wedding-skipping couple might shock and amaze a few, I think my seven-plus years living in Columbus immunized me to that type of behavior. I had heard that same story time and time again about people being booted by family and friends because they scheduled a wedding for a fall Saturday. I even attended a wedding on a Friday so the wedding party could attend an Ohio State game on Saturday afternoon. (Unfortunately, the events of September 11 four days earlier forced the cancellation of that game, but the wedding carried on.) So to me, while this type of behavior is not “normal” by any means, it’s understood that it happens and is accepted.

However, this type of behavior also brought around the down points in the book for me. (I promise, there’s good stuff, I’m just on a roll with the hate, here!) It’s not even a fault of the author, the book is very well-written, at a level for all football fans to understand, with the occasional pause to let the casual or non-fan in on the “secrets” of college football. But there were times when I just had to roll my eyes and think that a certain type of “super fan” has most likely crossed the line from “fanatic” to “idiot”. To an extent with the wedding skippers, but mostly with one Tide fan in particular, the guy who vomits and cries before, during and after Alabama games. I knew this type in Columbus, too, and while you can understand the pride they have for their team, I’d rather not hang around them.

And, I’ve been on both sides of that coin. In 1997, I had been in Columbus for about six months when an undefeated Michigan team hosted Ohio State. Entertaining (Buckeye friendly) friends in town, we went down to the OSU campus and had pizza and beer while we watched the game. Michigan won to clinch a Rose Bowl spot and a shot at the national championship, and I was beaming. My cousin, who was working at the pizza shop at the time, bolted for home late in the fourth, without saying a word for most of the final quarter of play. I find out later that he got home to find a roommate curled up on the couch in tears. TEARS! Because his team lost a game he had no interest in other than as a fan. It was quite honestly, one of the silliest things I’ve heard. Of course, when Ohio State won the following year, the roommate was none too shy about pointing out every play, stat and second of the game each time we crossed paths.

This past November, the game was in Columbus. Again surrounded by Ohio State fans, but this time at the game itself, and Michigan lost. I took some ribbing from friends, and sure I felt down about “my team” getting it handed to them in the biggest game of the year, but we went on and had one of the drinkingest nights of all time. So yeah, I have no place for a fan that gets that worked up over his team that he’s not physically, mentally or gastronomically stable to finish off the night with a stash of beers afterwards.

Aside from those minor quirks (minor enough to take up four paragraphs, but minor nevertheless), this book totally kicked ass! I have no idea how Warren A) came up with the idea to get this done, or B) actually make it through it, but since he did, I’m jealous. Of him, not his bank account (or at least bank account at the time). As he says repeatedly, or so it seems, through the book, it quickly got to the point where the story was finding him, rather than the other way around, but for chasing down strangers (in the purest sense of the word, some of these folks are STRANGE!) to all corners of the South, riding, and basically living with people (and their dogs) you just met all because of an allegiance to a sports team is bizarre. Dropping five grand on an RV is bizarre. Hell, I have to think twice before I drop $25 on a BG sweatshirt, and recoiled dramatically when I found out that flags for the porch (note: this is a must have for my first house, whenever that may be) run upwards of $35. To drop that money on an RV and hope it works seems foolish. But I bet I would have traded places with him in a second.

The “characters” in the book couldn’t be written any better if they were fictional. The storyline of the football schedule lends itself to a natural flow, but the author weaves that together pretty much flawlessly. This book definitely goes on my list of “books I’ve read where I actually had to slow myself down to enjoy it and not finish it too fast”. (And there weren’t even really any pictures!)

I’d like to thank the author, Warren St. John for not just sending me a copy of the book, but also the personalized note he dropped inside and signing the title page. In the span of about 10 days, I went from “requesting” a free book that I was pretty much just curious about (and it was a free book!) to finding a new favorite and feeling like the author and I had been pals for years.

And I appreciate that.

Also, I think I’ll close by highly suggesting that you visit the author’s official site. He’s got some solid links to fan antics every day, and on occasion will drop in a contest to win a free book. It’s absolutely worth your time. (And if you can’t wait for the book contests, order a copy for yourself, I promise you won’t be disappointed.)