Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Crimson Tide manager crafts special wristbands for players
TAMPA — The messages appear simple: black text on clean white cloth. But the wristbands with unique messages mean a lot to the Alabama players who wear them.
an equipment manager for the Crimson Tide, placed the 16 wristbands on the field at Raymond James Stadium Monday evening, hours before No. 1 Alabama took the field to play No. 2 Clemson for the national title.
“They tell me what they want,” Woodley said of the individual messages worn by many of the starters during the game.
Some wristbands feature references to the Bible, and others honor injured Tide senior safety
Nic Woodley,
Some read, “Team,” “Psalms 118:24,” and “Do it for 4.”
It took Woodley four hours to produce the 16 wristbands. He’s an artist of sorts and has been doing it for the past three years. Alabama tight end
asked him to do a wristband for him and other players followed suit.
Howard Eddie Jackson. O.J.
“I walk into the locker room and they’ve got a drum set and they’ve got a hanging disco ball,” Swinney recalls. “I’m like, ‘What the heck is this?’ And they’re like, ‘This is the celebration room. Joe [Maddon] likes to celebrate.’ And I’m like, ‘I like this guy!’ ”
Swinney also got a chance to meet Maddon, who was wearing a T-shirt that said, “Try not to suck.” Swinney said there was an instant connection because he fosters the same sort of loose atmosphere that Maddon has cultivated.
Said Swinney: “I told [Maddon,] ‘You guys have a great culture; you’ve got a winning culture here. You can just feel it in this building; you can smell it.’ ”
Swinney also said Maddon’s mantra, “Try not to suck” is sort of like the slogan he always recites to his players about avoiding selfinduced mistakes, “Don’t lose to Clemson.”
“The Cubs knew they had the best team, and I think they embraced that,” Swinney said. “That resonated with me. One of the first things I told our guys [during fall camp] is, ‘We are the target so let’s embrace it.’”