Marital truce by Paul Hemphill

By PAUL HEMPHILL - 08/28/05 - For the Journal-Constitution

In the beginning, football had nothing to do with it. We met, we fell in love, and we decided to marry. She knew I was Auburn '59, I knew she was Georgia '66, and none of that seemed problematic until the weekend following our nuptials in November of 1976 when, for the first time in our marriage, the two played each other. The game was at Auburn, some 3,000 miles from our apartment in San Francisco. We weren't used to watching college football games that began as early as 9 a.m., Pacific Coast time, still in our pajamas.

This one wasn't even on television, forcing us to find Southeastern Conference scores any way we could. My expectations were low Georgia was ranked seventh in the nation, while we hadn't been this bad since 1950 so I was going to cool it until she started in with the "cow college" stuff: "How can you tell a rich flamingo?" Uh-oh. "It's the one with the statue of an Auburn man in his front yard." Nothing could stop her; even my getting on all fours and barking like a bulldog in retaliation. She was, as they say, focused. Auburn got creamed, 28-0.

There would be better days, and I found them the next year when we moved home to Atlanta, back amongst folk who took their football seriously. Glorious autumns lay ahead talk shows brimming with bile, tailgate Saturdays at Auburn or Athens, the Sunday coaches' shows on television and we were back in heaven. I had my Bo Jackson, she her Herschel Walker. When we realized that Auburn and Georgia resembled cousins rather than warring tribes by the mid-80s, each was coached by men who had been star players at the other school the insults had lost their sting and we had made a separate peace. During our marriage, Auburn has won 15 games, Georgia 12, and there have been two ties. I love her, and she loves me, no matter how the games go.

If I had married an Alabama fan, now, that's another matter. Those insufferable ninnies. Just because Bear Bryant got lucky a couple of times ...

Paul Hemphill, author of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated book "Leaving Birmingham," teaches writing at Emory University. He said he'd move to Ireland if the Atlanta Braves could do without him.