I once joked with a friend that by my reckoning most Alabama fans did not attend college and they would not have a wardrobe if not for football season. During that same conversation many years ago, I also mentioned that the football-inspired wardrobe came – for the most part – from Walmarts that seem dropped like cow patties onto our state’s countryside.

It was a joke whose premise I thought absurd until I read an Associated Press story over the weekend on al.com:

“TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The University of Alabama is going to display its new national championship football trophy at a place where most anyone can see it: Walmart.

“The school says the Coaches' Trophy will be on display at a Walmart Supercenter in Tuscaloosa on Saturday and another Walmart store in Gardendale on Sunday.”

So, the Bama Nation’s first chance to ogle the trophy won (for them?) by a bunch of players and coaches they have never met was not at the athletic complex or the Paul W. Bryant Museum or Coleman Coliseum. It was at two Walmart stores.

The AP story also mentioned that “The Walmart stops are part of a sponsorship deal.” Now we know what the big money boys really think of all those fans who watch “amateur” athletes run around on a small screen; those same fans who spend their hard earned money dressing themselves and their children in proper crimson and white.

I wonder if Alabama’s multi-millionaire coach would be willing to hang out at the Walmart with the trophy, raise it above his head and kiss it after all those commoners have touched it? Here’s a better question: I wonder how much it would cost to have him do it?