The Greatest Photo Ever Taken

The 2017 Alabama-Tennessee game is not one you likely remember. It came during the death rattle of the Butch Jones era. Tennessee arrived in Tuscaloosa with a 3-3 record, Jarrett Guarantano at quarterback in place of Quinten Dormady (by some miracle, both are still starting college football quarterbacks going into 2020), and a trash can on its sideline as a motivational tool. Unless you’re an Alabama or Tennessee fan, you either didn’t tune into this bloodbath at all or you stopped watching once Alabama took a 21-0 first-half lead. Alabama ended up winning 45-7.  

But during the second half, the SEC proved once again why it’s the greatest conference in human history. With Alabama up 28-0 in the third quarter, Tennessee linebacker Daniel Bituli intercepted a pass thrown by Tua Tagovailoa (a true freshman at the time and still Jalen Hurts’s back-up) and returned it 97 yards for a touchdown. Trailing Bituli during the return was Tennessee safety and confirmed American patriot Rashaan Gaulden, who crossed the goal line shortly after Bituli. A lesser player, perhaps one in the Pac-12 or MAC, would have celebrated with Bituli for a few seconds and jogged backed to the sideline. Not Gaulden. He seized life by the throat and put his own personal stamp on college football lore:

It’s a glorious image by anyone’s measure. It’s wonderful enough that Tennessee was still down three scores and didn’t have a prayer of coming back. But what I did not appreciate until I went to write this essay was that Gaulden was not even the one who scored the touchdown. He was just a bystander who hated Alabama so goddamn much that he couldn’t resist the opportunity to tell their fans to kindly go fuck themselves. It was everything that is good, right, and just about SEC football and America. The kind of thing you dream of your own son or daughter growing up and doing.

There many layers to this modern-day Mona Lisa beyond Gaulden, and Spencer Hall breaks them down brilliantly here. But to me, the image of Gaulden standing there defiantly with his middle fingers thrust toward God is rivaled only by the photo taken of Washington crossing the Delaware.

God bless America and God bless Rashaan Gaulden.