If your mother ever had a china cabinet full of fine china or crystal, you can understand that things that are fragile seem to be polarized to attract the ham-handed. The same is true of the BCS championship trophy apparently, because on Saturday a recruit’s father who was visiting for the Alabama Crimson Tide spring game broke the crystal ball awarded to Alabama for winning last year’s BCS title, and this isn’t the first such occurrence.
In 2008, future Georgia star Orson Charles shattered the Florida Gators national championship crystal during a recruiting visit in Gainesville, and in 2004, two championship crystal balls were stolen from outside of former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden‘s office during a renovation.
The trophy, which costs roughly $30,000 a piece, is one of two crystal balls awarded to the university for their win over SEC West rivals LSU in last year’s national championship. Apparently, the ball was being displayed in a case inside the Mal Moore Athletic Facility, when a recruit’s father got caught up in the rug underneath the case, causing the ball to topple over and shatter on the ground.
Alabama is already in the process of attempting to replace the trophy, but that won’t be easy considering the ball is a handcrafted piece made by Waterford Crystal, the company that also makes the New Years Eve ball.
Perhaps this is just a case of the football God’s seeking justice against Alabama for constantly trying to claim national championships they didn’t actually earn (Alabama recognizes a national championship from 1941 where they were ranked No. 20 in the final AP poll). Unfortunately, by reclaiming the Crimson Tide’s “14th” national title trophy, Bama will probably somehow credit itself with a 15th championship somewhere along the way.
