We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban's "Ultimate Team"

by Joseph Goodman

A lively chronicle of how the 2020 Crimson Tide became Nick Saban’s “ultimate team.”
Was Alabama’s Crimson Tide in 2020 the greatest team of all time? The squad went 13-0 in a pandemic year, scored a combined 107 points against SEC powerhouses LSU and Florida, crushed Ohio State in a National Championship Game 52-24 in a contest that wasn’t even that close, and followed it up with another top-rated signing class.

Nick Saban called his boys the “ultimate team,” but it wasn’t just because they kicked the ever-living hell out of everyone on the football field. It was because the team leveraged a power and influence born of Southern pride to push back against a hateful legacy of racism that a populist president was exploiting to divide the nation. At a time when Americans needed real leaders in the face of so much hate, the sports world answered the call and fought back for the soul of the country. In the summer of 2020, the Tide players left their training facility and, led by their celebrated coach, marched to a campus doorway made infamous sixty years earlier by another political demagogue and showed what people can accomplish when they fight together for a just cause in the name of unity. The most powerful force in a state crazy for college football had chosen to make a stand and replace George Wallace’s “Segregation forever!” with a different message, written by one of the “All lives can’t matter until Black lives matter.”
​
There have been some great football teams through the years, and they all deserve respect. But here’s what we know for They all would have been appreciative of what this Alabama team represented, and proud of what it accomplished. The Crimson Tide in 2020 captured something special that moved it beyond the conversation of best ever, and into the place reserved for most important of all time.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Football, Humor

320 pages, Hardcover

Published November 9, 2021

Reviews

[SheMac · Rating 1 out of 5]

Here's all you need to know about this book, which is allegedly about 'Bama's 2020 championship season: Colin Kaepernick gets more mentions than Mac Jones. If forced to read, the discussion about the season begins on p.188.

[Dustin]

I'm not a sports fanatic, not even a casual fan, really. But my dear friend (who is incredibly passionate about college ball,) highly recommended it not only to me personally, but to everyone. She honestly believes everyone should read it, regardless of if you're a fan of the game or not.


https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Icy-Cobwebs-Crossing-SpaceTime · Rating 5 out of 5]

WE WANT BAMA is an amazingly special and profound nonfiction work. The debut of Al.com Sports Journalist Joseph Goodman Jr., WE WANT BAMA is remarkably literate, historical, profoundly philosophical and sociological. Don't come here looking for a facile light-hearted tour of the Crimson Tide. That's not what you'll find. You don't even need to be a Tide fan, a lover of college football, or a sports aficionado. You don't have to be Alabama-born. Every thinking American ought to read this book, ponder, and think about the lessons for society that are uncovered here.

[Lance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just like everything else, the year 2020 saw major disruptions in college football. However, one thing that didn't change was the dominance of the Alabama Crimson Tide and another national championship for them and coach Nick Saban. This book by Joe Goodman on that squad is quite different than any other book written about a particular team or season – which I guess would be quite fitting for anything about 2020.

This book does have some review of the games and highlights of that season for the Crimson Tide, but that is not how this book is structured – indeed, it seems to jump all over the place, but underlying that is one central theme that was that, to the author and after reading this book to this reviewer as well, the Alabama football team's march and other means of communication about racial injustice made a much louder impression than anything they accomplished on the football field. Goodman made this point in several different ways – through highlighting the activism of players like Chris Owen Najee Harris and Alex Leatherwood, who wrote a powerful song/poem that was recorded by him and many teammates. It was quite moving to just read it and see how a college football team would come together during this summer of unrest in 2020.

While most of the book has a serious message, whether football or racial equality, Johnson throws in plenty of humor and sarcasm as well as uncomfortable truth in this book. This is especially true when he talks about how important Alabama football is to the students, the university and the bank accounts of the university. He will often end sections about these topics with the phrase "Roll Tide!", the cheer for the football team yelled by fans. I thought that was a nice touch to illustrate his message.

While this book did seem to jump around on topics and at times, I had to re-read passages to figure out whether Goodman was being serious or sarcastic, it is one that really should be read by those who are unfamiliar with the history of racial injustice in Alabama as well as those who are either Alabama fans or wish to understand just how important the Crimson Tide football team is to the state. It is also a great look into the detail of Nick Saban and his recruiting success that is the ultimate reason for Alabama's continuing success.

I wish to thank Grand Central Publishing for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...

[Teddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggle to know who exactly this book is intended for. I don't really watch football, but my roommate is from Alabama, and when they explained the concept of this book to me, I thought, Hey that actually sounds really neat and interesting!

But.....I'm not sure exactly what was going on here? I definitely know 100% more about the Alabama football team, but is it anything important to know? I already knew they were basically the best team in America, so why the hell was their team any more important in 2020 than any other year? The book doesn't delve into the coaching strategies all that much, & doesn't do that in-depth on the players highlighted. But also there's so much inside-info that the author kinda expects to be familiar to us -- so maybe it's a book for fans, not the uninitiated??

Also, for a book ostensibly about how the political and societal situation deeply shaped the 2020 season? We do not get that much evidence, beyond a march and a video released by the players, supported by their coach. (Which, not to discredit that! Those are both incredible!) Is this an instance of there not being much politics beyond these two events, or is it an issue of the author not going deeper??

At any rate, as the most casual college football viewer, this book was interesting in that it explained some of the lore around Alabama football. But I don't think it achieves what it purports to, and I have no idea who to recommend it to, because I have no clue who the intended audience is.

[Paige · Rating 5 out of 5]

You don’t have to like football to need to read this book. You don’t have to be tolerant, open-minded, or liberal to need to read this book. You don’t have to love Alabama football… ok, you’re not probably picking it up if you don’t. But.

This book is a history lesson meeting an inflection point. Yes, “we want Bama” is played out (usually, you really don’t, anyway), but it’s also deeply significant. And as often as not, is about more than football.

The story of 2020 was grounded in COVID, rooted in race relations, and flourished in football (at least for Bama). The moment in history cannot be ignored for many reasons, but perhaps most importantly because of the lessons it taught us about ourselves and our not-too-distant past. It began with shared panic, survived shared heartbreak, recognized and learned from shared experience, and ended in shared joy. Isn’t that the best we can hope for, especially in a time when hope seemed so far away?

Roll Tide.

[Blaine Duncan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm guessing before an editor's hands touched it, this book had every sentence end with "Roll Tide," every page have "aight," and Gallettes referenced more a thousand times.

The efforts and era of the 2020 Alabama Crimson Tide deserved better -- as do the lasting and important context of their achievements -- than this book provides. The summer after George Floyd's murder, the history of racism in the South, and the 2020 football season are all tied together. Everything's political.

The problems of this book, though, are mostly of audience. When Goodman sticks to the fascinating facts of the season, coaches, context, and players the book hums. When he interjects voice, it's some of the most clumsy writing this side of a high school English classroom.

Also, there are a lot of other places in Tuscaloosa besides Gallettes, despite what outsiders may think after reading this.

Read similar reviews and more: https://www.thealabamatake.com

[Will Senkus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay so it didn’t actually take me months to read this! But it did get pushed to the back of the line several times. I loved learning more about that 2020 Bama team that had to overcome so much to achieve greatness. Sometimes the writing went on weird tangents, but it was a smooth read otherwise.

[Beth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Being a huge Bama fan I was looking forward to reading this book. With that said I was very disappointed in it. Yes it does tell the story of the 2020 football team that won the National Championship against all odds of even a football season happening. Yes it tells of how the campus dealt or even sometimes didn't deal with Covid. Yes it does tell of the great coaching job Nick Saban did during the all SEC schedule in the mist of Covid. But then it turned political. I don't read sports books to be preached to about social awareness. Or how bad the former president might have been. I want to know about players and highlights of games. I don't think I will be recommending this book to my fellow Bama fans.

[Richard · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sports journalism at it's worst. Sports is an afterthought in Goodman's effort. This book allegedly about a football season is a messy, boring, and frustrating political diatribe based on cherry-picked events. What a mockery of sports as a great unifier.

I could not make it past about page 150.

Goodman is useless at writing for sports and history. Returned for refund.

[Travis B. Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mediocre at best. There was some comedy, there were some great points that were made, and then there was a lot of political propaganda? It was weird. Totally not what I expected at all. I more expected this to be a chronicle of Alabama’s 2020 season that was highly focused on the team, development, each game, etc, but instead found myself rolling my eyes constantly at how the writer just really wanted to bash the sitting president at the time.

I listened to it on audiobook and I think the reader actually made it worse. It was basically a wannabe Bo Burnham trying to tell people about a Southern sports team. He constantly pronounced QB Tua Tagovailoa’s name incorrectly, which is a huge turnoff to a die hard Bama fan.

[Rick Nichard · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of the worst books I’ve ever read. I don’t understand the style. It feels incredibly under reported to be published. Pages of the book are dedicated to entire quotes that are uninteresting and do not advance any specific ideas.

I picked this book up thinking there would be some type of argument about leadership and Nick Sabans style. There was none of that. I was also hoping to get a more in depth analysis of the actual football played by the Alabama team in 2020. There was very little of that.

There was a lot of poetry at one point. Poetry that sucked.

There were a few stories about a Saban from the man who stocked his refrigerator. Not interesting ones, just ones that illuminate Sabans attention to detail.

This book sucks.

[Palatine Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is for football lovers and Crimson Tide fans. It's the story if the 2020 Alabama Crimson Tide football team. It goes through their experience with BLM and Covid and how they fought through it as a unit and had one of the greatest college football seasons of all time. They won the National Chanpionship and were undefeated.

I rate this book 3.5/5 stars because the book had a lot of good information and stories in it. Overall, was a fun and good book to read. I recommend reading it if you like football or you're a fan of the college. - Amann P.

[Jeffrey Holland · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 2020 Alabama crimson tide are by far the most dominate college football team I’ve ever watched. My most controversial take may be the Devonta smith is the best college player of the last 30 years. And although I liked the book, it’s so “2020”. The author strays too far into the social climate of that year, and although Saban’s work on social justice is immensely important, I wish the book focused more on how good the tide were that year.

[Ashley McCarver · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was more about 2020 in a history book format and large discussions of systemic racism than the 2020 "Ultimate Alabama Team." Not to say that those aren't important issues that need attention (because they do), but I was hoping for more stories about the actual team. There were mentions of things that happened while I was a student at UA, and I can appreciate that nostalgia, but this was more of an everything else going on in the world in 2020 and deep-seated racial issues since Jim Crow times book than a book about the team who had an undefeated, all SEC season.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

While my expectations where not high for this rookie effort, it really was a great book. Despite the author trying to be a poor man’s Wright Thompson at the start, the books explorations of the racial issues of notoriously backward Alabama are fascinating.

[Colton Musser · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book that focuses on a lot of issues that impact Alabama football. The author goes down a lot of rabbit holes, some that end with clever and interesting stories but too many that end with no satisfying conclusion.

[Roxanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book about a college football and how they beat eveeyone they played. It was really a heartfelt story. The book was not just about football but about Black rights. in the deep South.

[Josh Vernon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not at all what the title claims. Just a book describing how the author hates republicans and Trump. Not about football at all.

[Amy Norris · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not finish this. It was nothing more than a diatribe about politics hidden behind a cover saying it was about football. I wish I could actually delete it from my Audible library. Awful.

[Mary Bounds · Rating 4 out of 5]

hard to follow at times but learned a lot about Alabama history

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bama, Racism and the Pandemic make the 2020 team the best ever.
I was expecting comments from rival fans.
Won this book on Goodreads.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up

came to hear about my favorite team, stayed to listen to a discussion on the intersection of politics, racism, and football in the south

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible book. Simply a book to denigrate people in the south and to promote a political agenda. I would recommend this book if you are training your dog and need a place for your dog to squat. I only gave it a 1 because there was no 0.

[Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where Goodman’s book succeeds is in building a firm foundation out of an exhaustive amount of context. Alabama Football does not and has never existed in a vacuum, in particular with regard to where the young men that play on the team come from and how those places where forged in the fires of white supremacy. It’s a fact about the state that all of us that are natives must reckon with and a facet deeply engrained within our football fandom that we may not talk about but which we are keenly aware whenever our teams are on a national stage. It’s why the victories of a team that can conquer prejudices and social injustice are so sweet.

Those eager for a simple recap of the 2020 season, as some negative reviews on this site clearly indicate, are better off just reading the Wikipedia page entry on the season. This book is about how football and sports are more than just about what happens on the field. They are the stories of young men who live in a world of racism and white patriarchy, how combating that in their personal life turned them into a leader and a champion on the field, is why sports are so thrilling. Anyone not able to intellectual engage with the idea that the young men on any football team are in fact people that have had to overcome prejudices and aren’t simple props to watch move a ball on Saturdays probably would stick to reading Family Circus in the Sunday funny section (but even Jeffy knows prejudice is wrong).

Where Goodman’s book is a chore however are the times when he tries just a little too hard. Moments of abject Southernisms read more like someone doing a bad Larry the Cable Guy impression out of a daily calendar. These are peppered throughout and always come across as corny attempts to make non-Southern readers feel at an arms length away. To actual Southerns they feel patronizing.

For non-Natives to Alabama it’s hard to recommend this enough. The book dedicates as much to Alabama state history and how it is tied to the personal lives of Alabama Crimson Tide players that it paints an impressive picture of why this team means so much to people from this state. For persons that grew up there and know much of why our state is the way it is, it’s still educational, but largely puts into words why our pride is incomparable.

Roll Tide.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads more as a fan letter to Paul Finebaum about the Crimson Tide more than a journalist's recount of the 2020 team. The author does a good job of capturing the various social and pandemic related issues going on in 2020 while telling the story of one of the most dominate teams in college football history. At times the tone seemed off, but the admiration for the players and staff was evident throughout.

I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my open and honest review.