Book Review
Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer
Author: Warren St. John
Review by Paul Hopkins
7/2/2008
America is known as the land of excesses, so its perhaps only fitting that this book takes a look at those most devout of American football fans – those who follow college football. Warren St John, a self-confessed Alabama fanatic, spends a season following that most dedicated of fan - the community that every August seemingly pack up their lives into an RV and put what's left on hold until the New Year; those who take their own motorised home to each and every Crimson Tide game.
Rammer Jammer takes you inside what it means to be a football fan. Tracking the highs and the lows, and the impact on these on all kinds of people from all walks of life, of the Crimson Tide during the 1999 season, Rammer Jammer shows the common bond that unifies fans around a shared passion and a shared desire to see that passion succeed. It chronicles the big wins, the coaching controversies, the brotherhood amongst the RV community, the pride people derive from it and the hatred one naturally acquires for rivals, simply by following a particular side.
The book is essentially concerned with what motivates these people to behave like they do over a sport, that makes them act as though a group of young men at a university are part of their family (or indeed more important than their family!), that makes them devote so much of their lives to this cause. You'll be amazed at the importance these people attach to their teams successes and failures, the rituals they go through and the superstitions they swear by.
Interspersed with some great insight into the phenomenon of being a fan, St John presents his subjects, because, as he admits, this is what these people are in the context of his book, as he observes them to understand what motivates and makes them this kind of person. However, as the season develops the bond between researcher and research subjects disintegrates and these people ultimately become his friends – through the simple bond they have of their love for the Alabama Crimson Tide. In becoming part of this group, whilst also studying them, St John has become one of them. One of these devoted lunatics.
But that's the overriding feeling you get from this book – its not lunacy. St John humanises the characters, showing their passion in a light that makes you understand what drives them on despite the inevitable knock backs that comes with being a football fan. In the end, you realise that at the most primitive level, they're just like you and me and everyone else who roots for a team. Except they drive in a motorised.
Above all else, it reminds all of us why we care about the game, and that, no matter how mad we may think someone we know is, there's always someone far, far worse out there!
Diner Rating 9/10
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