Working Class Man Attends Alabama/Wisconsin Game, Experience Might Shock You

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Note: Some names, details, locations and specifics have been withheld to protect national security and individuals involved. This is a true story. Let’s roll.

The glorious trip to Madison to watch the Wisconsin Badgers play the Alabama Crimson Tide this past Saturday is in the books, and as expected, it didn’t disappoint.

As OutKick readers know, I’ve been looking forward to this trip ever since the game was announced years ago. Wisconsin rarely has historic programs visit Camp Randall for a non-conference game. It’s about as common as a unicorn sighting.

That’s why Wisconsin fans have been amped up and excited for this past Saturday since the game was first announced.

Planning and logistics have been being worked on since August 2023. As we all know, you never know go to war under-prepared. You go locked, cocked and ready to rock.

That’s exactly what we did.

*SEND ALL REACTIONS AND RESPONSES TO MY INSANE TRIP TO David.Hookstead@outkick.com.*

Madison was on fire all weekend long.

I arrived at the D.C. airport early Friday morning to meet up with my buddy who was going to the game with me. Now, my buddy (name withheld for security reasons) is one of the two biggest Alabama fans I know on this planet (more on the other one later), and he’s every bit as excited as I am.

The Alabama fanatic has never stepped foot in the state of Wisconsin before. I will be responsible for showing him the time of his life as we link up with people also flooding into the state from all over the country.

Naturally, we had to grab an airport beer, and then it was off to the races.

It’s hard to describe the feelings I had on the plane as we headed to Madison. I know it sounds insane, but I literally felt like I was flying into smack people and hold the line.

This tweet below sums it up.

 One of the things that my friend was most excited about was trying Culver’s. For those of you who don’t know, Culver’s is the greatest burger and custard chain in America.

Nothing else even comes close. Save me any nonsense about Five Guys, Shake Shack or any other place. Culver’s is king, and it takes a special kind of stupid to think differently.

Fortunately, there’s one close to the *VERY* working class place my buddy and I are staying. We load up on burgers, fries, cheese curds and custard.

My friend has been in the state for less than an hour and is already in a euphoric state. Check out the spread below.

After checking into what might be the worst hotel I’ve ever stayed in – there was a bar of used soap in the shower and hair on the towels – my buddy and I only had one thing left to do.

Hit up campus and get the greatest show on Earth underway. This is where my buddy got a bit of a reality check from what he was used to in Tuscaloosa.

Our first stop was the Memorial Terrace. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a gorgeous student union building overlooking a lake that provides exceptional drinking views.

There was just one problem. By the time we showed up at around 3:00 p.m., there wasn’t a single open seat. There had to be 700 people there, including some Alabama fans. My friend remarked he’s never seen people drink like this. He has no idea what he’s in for. Welcome to the big leagues, son.

We pivot and decide to go elsewhere as it’s going to take an hour or more for a seat to be available, and time is pretty important at this time.

We end up at a bar called The Double U, and it doesn’t take me long to find out something I didn’t expect:

Alabama travels.

Now, I don’t mean a decent amount of Alabama fans showed up. I mean Alabama was taking over the State Street region of campus.

There were thousands of them. They were everywhere. Young, old, men, women. It was all of them. I felt like I was in the scene of “Red Dawn” when the colonel tells the Wolverines they’re “40 miles behind enemy lines.”

It looked like the battle was underway the night before kickoff, and Madison was ROCKING. It was unlike anything I’d seen before. Two historic universities coming together to hammer drinks in anticipation of Saturday.

Game day arrives in Madison. The war is here.

My Alabama friend and I had made the smart call to call it a night before midnight Friday. We wanted to be well-rested and ready to roll Saturday.

It turned out to be the right call. Every bar near Camp Randall was packed by 9:00 a.m., and again, I was in a state of shock at the sheer overwhelming presence of Alabama fans.

They’re everywhere. So am I. Little do I know the impending doom.

I link up with my wonderful parents before the game and we make our way to our seats. We’re sitting right on the 50 yard line under the atrium of Camp Randall.

You couldn’t ask for better seats. We’re in the shade, it’s not too hot and we have a perfect view of the entire field. For once, this working class blue-collar guy is getting a taste of the high life. It turns out, it’s nice and I like it.

Now, I don’t want to dwell too much on the game. We all know what happened. Wisconsin looked great before Tyler Van Dyke suffered what appeared to be a significant injury. The wheels came off after that happened, and it was a blowout.

I was seated in a position to see TVD come out of the medical tent. I won’t go into specifics, but he appeared to be in rough shape. Very rough shape.

Now, I could sit here and complain and pout, but just like when the game unfolded and ended, there wasn’t time for that.

I text a good friend of mine (remember when I said there’s a second die hard Alabama fan and you should remember it? It’s time to remember it) who made the trip, and plans are underway to link up.

Now, I have to be very careful with what I say here, and I hope you can understand why. The group of people we’re with includes government officials, media members and what is best described as Alabama high class. I want you in your mind to imagine the people you think would be closest to the Alabama program and coaching staff. That’s who we’re with.

I fully expected Alabama fans to rub it in. I’d mentally prepared for it. I knew it was coming……but then something shocking happened.

It never did.

One of my good friends, who I honestly anticipated would be the worst because that’s just the friendship we have, hit me with one hell of a sly grin upon first linking up. I could tell they were resisting the urge so hard to dig the knife deeper after all my trash talking. Instead, I get hit with a simple but clean, “You knew that was going to happen, right?”

Woof.

It looks like I’ve avoided any serious trolling, and by this point the drinks are flowing. In fact, the drinks are flowing so much that some dumbass spilled a massive drink all over my jeans. I’m not happy about it, but like in any gunfight, I don’t have time to complain.

What I’m learning is that I love Alabama fans. Are they in an utter state of shock at how much Wisconsin fans are drinking? Without a doubt, but it turns out we have a lot in common.

As one Alabama fanatic with me, who I’ve known for a very long time, said after the drinks were flowing, “I think I understand more who you are as a person now after witnessing where you come from.”

I can tell it’s a compliment, and I can tell Alabama fans are cut from a similar cloth. Not the same, but similar.

In our entire trip, there was only one bad interaction with an Alabama fan, and it came between a clown and my Alabama buddy. A smartass comment was made by someone who apparently thought they were important, and I nearly exploded.

Did this idiot, who I didn’t know from Adam, realize where he was? Did he not realize who he was talking to? This isn’t Tuscaloosa. This is Madison. This is the house Wisconsin built. This is the house the Hooksteads built, and when you’re in my house, you will speak to my guests with the same respect that you’d speak to me or any of my family members with. Fortunately, the situation was defused and everyone moved on.

For the rest of the day, we hopped from bar to bar cutting it up with Wisconsin and Alabama fans. Everyone was trying to make sure nobody paid for a drink. I’m out a solid $500 just from the bar tab Saturday night.

At this point, we’re winding down the night when I turn and see one of the most famous players in the history of college football with us. As you can tell, I often withhold names when the identity of the person could cause outrage. I also have a rule that I think is a good one. Once alcohol and drinking is involved, everything is off the record.

So understand that I’m not going to share this guy’s name, but he is *ROLLING* at the bar and drinks are flowing. He hands me a tequila soda and makes one of the funniest jokes I’ve heard in a long time that I won’t repeat here because I enjoy keeping my job.

It’s surreal. Just hours ago, I’m with people essentially running the Alabama football program, people running the media, the people running the government and now I’m ripping drinks with one of the most famous Heisman winners to ever pick up a football.

Dude said he was a fan of my work, which was perhaps the most surreal moment of it all. What an insanely bizarre and unexpected life I live.

Couple quick notes:

• The Madison airport was a disaster Sunday. It was overwhelming to the point it was comical. One of the Alabama fans with me seemed ready to blow his lid, and I don’t blame him. Maybe the worst service I’ve ever had.
• We sat with this saint of an HR woman at a bar who told me the most absurd potential threesome story she dealt with that I’ve ever heard. Classic Wisconsin game day experience. You never know what might happen when you agree to split a table.
• I paid to jump every line when possible. We’re not waiting around.
• I drink only one martini espresso.
• Alabama fans were convinced they’d get me to shout “Roll Tide!” by the end of Saturday night. It never happened.
• The F-35 flyover was amazing.
• Jump Around is still great.
• Churchkey has the best wings in Madison, and it’s not close.
• I still can’t believe that Alabama fan wanted to get lippy with a friend of mine. Insane behavior from an otherwise incredible fanbase.

Overall, it was an insane trip that came with a total bill after bar tabs and foods that was easily north of $6,000. Money well-spent as a working class man to watch my Badgers get blown out? Absolutely. It was an incredible experience, and I’m not going pass up an opportunity to watch Wisconsin welcome Alabama to Madison. Now, we gear up for trip to Tuscaloosa in 2025. Can’t wait! Let me know what you thought at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.