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If you're taking a cowbell with you to Starkville, tweet us a pic http://t.co/cQTflMD3CG ... pic.twitter.com/C8dypcNXKQ
— AUFAMILY (@AUFAMILY) October 8, 2014
I'll admit it, when I first heard about the idea I chuckled and thought "that would be kind of funny." Then I got to thinking about it and realized that it's really just dumb. Almost every team in the SEC has a tradition they're proud of that others think is childish. We roll trees after a win for goodness sake. Mississippi State has their cowbells.
Some traditions get copied. Everyone has their version of Tiger Walk, now. We were the first to do it and we love to tell people that all they're doing is copying us.
Cowbells? That's something we need to just leave alone. I could explain my thoughts on it, but I'm just going to let Jerry Hinnen of CBSSports (formerly WarBlogEagle for The War Eagle Reader and Joe Cribbs Car Wash before that) explain it for me.
Auburn fans can bring cowbells to ring in State's stadium, long as they're OK w/ State fans bringing toilet paper to throw in Auburn's trees
— Jerry Hinnen (@JerryHinnen) October 9, 2014
OK, let's talk about this RT @MattAU05 Terrible comparison. You get that cowbells are simply chance for AU to also use noisemakers, right?
— Jerry Hinnen (@JerryHinnen) October 9, 2014
If you disagree w/ MSU's noisemaker exception, hey, fine, I get the argument that everyone else lives/dies w/ crowd noise.
— Jerry Hinnen (@JerryHinnen) October 9, 2014
But if you want that policy changed, write to Jacobs saying you want the same for AU. Write to Slive you believe it's unfair.
— Jerry Hinnen (@JerryHinnen) October 9, 2014
Every Auburn fan in Starkville could show up w/ an Auburn-branded cowbell at Davis-Wade and it wouldn't change State's mind.
— Jerry Hinnen (@JerryHinnen) October 9, 2014
But not every AU fan will do that. We're talking, what, 300 absolute max? You think that many bells will bother State on the field at all?
— Jerry Hinnen (@JerryHinnen) October 9, 2014
So if you're not making any difference in terms of changing the policy or affecting the game, what are you doing? You're just trolling.
— Jerry Hinnen (@JerryHinnen) October 9, 2014
And just pissing off State fans for the sake of pissing them off isn't any different than them rolling trees in Auburn. Fin.
— Jerry Hinnen (@JerryHinnen) October 9, 2014
That's an excellent summation of the issue at hand. Let's see how some of the rest of the staff here think:
Can we not with the cowbells, y'all? Please?
— Peggy (@peggyrossmanith) October 8, 2014
Wait, is this Auburn cowbell thing real? Y'all are just messing with the rest of us, right?
— Bobby Barkley (@bobby_barkley) October 8, 2014
I try not to tell y'all how to barn but y'all have to put a stop to this barn cowbell business. Carry your shakers and shake them. Cripes.
— Blake Ells (@blakeells) October 9, 2014
MT @SBNationCFB Auburn fans' plan to fight CLANGA Saturday? COUNTER-CLANGA! http://t.co/o0Lwpe805v (via @AUFAMILY) pic.twitter.com/GFZBjPhYvF
— WarRoomEagle (@WarRoomEagle) October 9, 2014
Hey, let's check in with Blogger Emeritus Chris Fuhrmeister:
Y'all barners taking cowbells to Starkville have no shame.
— Chris Fuhrmeister (@ccfuhr) October 9, 2014
In short: please don't. It makes us look petty. I thought it was a funny idea at first, but it's not. It looks like we're whining. The amount of Auburn fans there with cowbells couldn't make enough noise to affect their team's play anyway. It's not like they're really even that loud, it's just that they're annoying. I'm sure our team can handle it. I might be ALMOST concerned about the road environment if it were the first road game, but that trip to Manhattan, KS did wonders for the maturity of this team.
Let's just let our team do what they do on the field and handle ourselves with class rather than looking petulant about them getting to shake their bells. It's their tradition that they love and enjoy. It's one of the things that makes college football interesting. I hate the sound of them, but it's part of the MSU game every year and it just comes with the territory. Now let's get to some football.
War Eagle.