A Halloween Costume for the Vol Faithful (NOT!)

My son and I went down to Knoxville yesterday for the Tennessee-South Carolina football game and in the midst of that bone-cold, rainy night, we saw the best Halloween costume of the season.

The guy pictured here is disguised as Terrance "Mt." Cody, the 354-pound defensive tackle who last week (when 'Bama was ranked No. 1 in the nation), blocked two Vol field goals to preserve a 12-10 victory. (View my Oct. 26 blog entry to see how much this guy looks like Cody.) That win was controversial because clearly Mt. Cody committed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the game's last play that would have given UT another chance at that same blocked field goal from 15 yards closer. He threw off his helmet as the play was still in progress. The rule book says a game can't end on a defensive penalty, even if no time is left on the clock. The officials didn't call it and have been accused of protecting 'Bama by a league dying to have two teams finish unbeaten with the prospect of getting both into the lucrative BCS field.

This guy, whose name I didn't get, and his girlfriend (the referee wearing blinders) was a huge hit among those thousands on the way to the game, wearing his Alabama jersey with Cody's number and name on the back and even his long dreadlocks (Cody is African-American, this guy white). I don't know how this played out during the game, though. I personally would have tired of looking at it pretty quickly, especially after my Vols hit the field in those lovely black and orange Halloween Special uniforms and proceeded to crush the Gamecocks.