In Alabama, football isn't only a game-it's a culture, a way of life.
Much publicity is given to places like Texas or California, where many of the nation's best high school players come from.
Nonetheless, Alabama is as much defined by its football fixation as the bigger, more-publicized states.
"Alabama is certainly a football state," said Kenneth Darby, the Crimson Tide's starting running back and a Hunstville, Ala. native. "But playing football [in high school] was more about fun than pressure."
The state of Alabama's publicity got a boost when MTV installed the series "Two-A-Days" earlier this fall. The reality show follows the Hoover, Ala. high school football team and the daily lives of its players.
Alabama center Antoine Caldwell, a Montgomery native, said the show is correct in its portrayal of the daily lives of Alabama high school players, although he himself did not play at Hoover.
"The show is pretty accurate for the most part," Caldwell said. "They add the drama with all the girl problems and stuff like that, but mostly, it's how it really is."
Crimson Tide quarterback John Parker Wilson is no stranger to the hype surrounding an atmosphere like the one characterized in "Two-A-Days." He himself played for Hoover and led the Bucs to a state title in 2003. But like Darby, he said the pressure of playing in the Alabama high school atmosphere was not too much to handle.
"It kind of got hard at times, but not too overwhelming," Wilson said. "High school was just a fun time. I didn't feel any pressure."
The MTV show highlights not only the strain of playing football while balancing schoolwork but also the normal pressure of being a high school student. Most of all, it encapsulates how Alabama football truly is a way of life.
"I think it's great for those guys to get that recognition," Wilson said. "They work so hard and they deserve it."
The show has special meaning for Wilson as the quarterback's younger brother, Ross, is Hoover's starting quarterback.
"We talk a lot-we're real close," Wilson said. "He knows the ins and outs though because he played last year. I don't have to give him that much advice."
Having a younger brother on an MTV show makes the quarterback the subject of some jokes by his teammates, especially because Wilson himself appeared on one of the show's early episodes.
"Every once and a while we'll poke at him for being on MTV," Caldwell said. "We call him a prima-donna, but we're just joking around."
But Wilson said his teammate's jokes don't bother him because when he was in high school, Hoover "beat pretty much all those guys' teams."
"They give me a pretty hard time about it," Wilson said. "They'll mention it every chance they get."
Although Wilson may claim he did not feel the pressure, his teammate Darby said even his high school-where he was the state's top running back recruit as a prep player-did not come under the same scrutiny as Hoover.
With the publicity generated by the hit series, people around the country are beginning to realize what the Crimson Tide players have known for years-California and Texas aren't the only places where football reigns supreme.
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