Alabama linebacker Ryan Anderson is preparing for the Tide’s Peach Bowl Playoff semifinal against Washington on New Year’s Eve (3 p.m. ET, ESPN). Anderson is a redshirt senior, and he’s aware that some college stars have decided to skip their bowl games to get an injury-free head start on draft prep — and that not everyone likes it.
Here’s a Bama linebacker on why nobody’s sitting out the bowl games that actually matter
The Playoff is not the Birmingham Biscuit Bowl.
But Anderson’s not skipping the Peach Bowl. Let’s hear why:
Anderson’s full quote:
“I’m playing for a national championship. I ain’t playing in the Birmingham Biscuit Bowl, you know what I mean? Or the Louisiana Crawfish Bowl, so why would I sit out? This is what I worked all my life for. You know what I mean? This is the ultimate goal. I don’t think you ever have to worry about nobody around here doing that ... We’re playing for a championship. That’s stupid. Maybe if we was playing in the Ragin’ Cajun Bowl or something ... Not with these dudes, man.”
My favorite thing about this is Anderson’s made-up bowl game names. Nobody talks trash about the Birmingham Biscuit Bowl.
Anderson’s point here — that the Playoff matters, but other bowl games do not — is not an uncommon one. His head coach, Nick Saban, made a similar point after Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey announced they’d skip LSU’s and Stanford’s bowls, respectively, to get ready for the draft. Saban thinks the introduction of a Playoff in 2014 has devalued other bowls, so the sport has led itself here.
But this is the Playoff, not the Crawfish Bowl. Anderson’s playing, as are all the other healthy Alabama veterans and those on the three other Playoff semifinalists.
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