A New Hope

Roll Tide everyone,

Wow, what a crazy few weeks, huh?

Seven days ago it seemed all but certain that our ‘Bama home-away-from-home would be closing its doors; possibly for good. Like you, it literally felt that we all were going to lose a hundred of our closest friends. We had a sad.

There was weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. We yelled, posted profane .gifs --just praying this wasn’t the end. And then, in one simple e-mail, all those fears were put to rest and they were replaced by, well...even more terrifying fears.

We know there are a lot of concerns, and rightly so, about how the site will be ran in the future.

Who will replace OTS? Who, in Todd’s absence, is going to tell us they hate us every day? Where will the content come from? Can anyone duplicate Kleph’s hagiography? Will the tenor and tone of the blog change? Where will be derive our Serbian political critique and YouTube imbeds of awful Turkish soccer? These are all valid concerns, and ones that will be addressed in the fullness of time, and at great length. But, for now, don’t worry folks, the new RBR will be the same as the old one, just with a few tweaks here and there.

First off, I would like to state how supremely honored we are to be given the responsibility of managing, editing and authoring for Roll Bama Roll. Rest assured, we have not taken this newfound responsibility lightly and we plan on doing everything within our powers and capabilities to continue the already-high level of quality content that so many RBR readers have grown to expect.

Menny, buyt not all of you, may know this but most of the “new” people have been a part of the RBR community since its inception. We were there for the great MGoblog war, the seminal 2008 National Signing Day, the Fax Cam girl, the first ever Meltdown thread (and the first utterance of Face AIDS). We knew the swinging cactus before the swinging cactus was a thing. We remember Katharine McPhee as the RBR “cheesecake”, the freshmans, Bamagrad, Dickel and sweet tea, and let’s not forget watching Pete Holiday reduce grown men into lumps of big league chewing gum.

This is meant to say, we are you; you are us, and that is the point of the SBN community and Roll Bama Roll. You don’t spend seven years of your life reading, writing, laughing, yelling, trolling, clicking the reload button a hundred time and wasting hours of your workday somewhere if it doesn’t mean something to you. And, if means something to you, you can’t sit still, right?

Nico said it best yesterday,…”What better people to lead the next generation of the blog than those that spent years here with it and love it?

So, what should you, as a loyal follower of the Crimson Tide, expect to see from the “new” Roll Bama Roll? Ray Perkins would agree you never want to replace a legend, but that’s exactly what we are attempting to do. Honestly, words can’t express the high level of respect we have for Todd, Nico, OTS and Kleph. After all, Nico founded this site and these guys poured their lives into making RBR the most successful Bama blog on the internet.

With that said, save for a few adjustments here or there, our goal is not to change RBR but simply to continue its legacy. Along with some new features, all your RBR favorites like the Jumbo Package, Meltdown thread, Hoodoo, RBR Sweetheart, Random 10 and Random Thoughts Around the SEC will return.

One thing to look for is expanded coverage of all ‘Bama sports with weekly updates on Gymnastics, Softball, Baseball, Basketball, and Recruiting. We want RBR to be your first stop for all your Alabama news. We will also be expanding our coverage to include topics all around college sports and sports in general.

Additionally, Roll Bama Roll will again be a blog “for the people, by the people”. Interaction in the fanposts and fanshots will be highly promoted and an all-around sense of community will be our identity. I’m sure you have noticed the addition of quite a few of the RBR regulars to the masthead. We may all introduce ourselves in our own way, on our terms, but you should recognize many of the “new” mods.

To briefly give you the new hierarchy:

• Darth Saban will be joining myself as a Manager of the community.
• J-Tadpole, Slice of Life and Erik_RBR (Formally Stuck in the Plains) will be editors and mods.
• We are very pleased to have recruited TWEsq, 5026, CB969, Roll Tide Yall, Nice Little Saturday, Jeremey_RBR (formally BamaReturns07), Glen55 and Ole Whistlebritches as authors for the site.

I need to end this before someone scrolls to the bottom and types TL;DR.

You’ve already seen this morning a Jumbo Package and some new content for your reading enjoyment. Later on this afternoon we will have recruiting news, a Senior Bowl wrap up and a preview of the upcoming basketball game vs Arkansas.

Finally, I’ll leave you with this. Like our faithful leader told us following the ’09 Championship game: “I want everybody here to know, this is not the end. This is the beginning.”

Gump hard, our friends,

Bammer, and the Editors and Authors of Roll Bama Roll.