Here’s what was posted on the T-Town Gallery Facebook page:

AUTOGRAPH SIGNING: Friday January 20, 2012: Mark Baron, Marquis Maze, Dont’a Hightower, Dre Kirkpatrick, Courtney Upshaw, Josh Chapman, and Brad Smelley from 5pm to 9pm. $200 for all signatures or $35 a piece. Saturday, January 21, 2012: Trent Richardson with Roy Upchurch from 5pm to 7 pm. $50 for both signatures. 
We expect the store will be busy so make sure to arrive early! We will have pictures and other things available to purchase for signatures! Be sure to share this with your friends!

The Alabama celebration for their 14th National Championship was at Bryant Denny today, so I figured it would be best get there early to stand in line.  My son and I showed up at the University Mall at 2pm and walked around a little. About 2:30, we made our way to center court to get in line. Before we did, we tried to buy some items to get signed at T-Town gallery but they were closed to set up. A sign on the fence said to wait there for assistance. There were 10-15 people in the store and I waited for 10 minutes and nobody came to assist. I wanted to know more about prices and what type of items would be available to purchase. We went ahead and got into line. I looked the number of the store up and gave them a call to ask those questions. The person that answered was quite helpful and answered the questions. She did mention that they had plenty of white panel footballs to purchase. Remember that for what happens later.

It’s now about 2:45pm and we’re looking at a good 2 hour wait. We had some really cool folks around us in the line, so the wait wasn’t too bad. One of the ladies a couple back from me in line had purchased a few 2011 National Championship footballs before she came. Because her father in law didn’t want to drop $85 to get the autographs, she had an extra. I paid her $10 more than she paid to help her out and as it turned out, it helped me as well.

Brett with a new haircut waiting in line to meet Trent Richardson

During all this, the store has a couple loudspeakers, amp, and mic to facilitate the event and make announcements. It didn’t work so well. Only the people right in front of the store could hear. I am not sure if anything important was ever said on it.

Now it’s 5PM and we’re still standing in line. We have approximately 100 people in front us at this point and an estimated 1,000 behind us. The line isn’t moving at all.

Finally around 5:30pm, the players are all set to get started. According to my receipt, Brett and I got into the store and paid for the signatures (all $255 of them) at 6:19pm. This is where it gets very disappointing.

Initially, my plan was to buy one thing to get signed and hope they would sign my son’s Bama cap too. While waiting, I decided to get something for Brett, something for me, and something for my father-in-law. Since I was there, waited so long, I might as well get something nice for my father-in-law and myself. But yes, the day and the idea to do this was more for my son than me anyhow. I am trying to remember that as I sit here disappointed.

As I mentioned earlier, I was told on the phone that there would be plenty of balls and photos to purchase once we get into the store. There were plenty of photos, none of which I felt were a good match for getting autographs of all 3 players on. I could have got 3 individual photos, but I wanted something I could get all 3 on that I could display in my home.

We got into the store and like I said, I wasn’t thrilled with the choice of photos so I wanted to grab a couple white panel balls similar to the one I bought from the lady behind me in line. They ran out of them a couple people ahead of me. They had a one mini white panel football on the table, so I bought it. I still needed a 3rd now. All they had left were official NFL and NCAA balls for $35. With very few options and people rushing me through I agreed to purchase an official NCAA ball. This one would be for my ball case!

3 tickets for each player!

After dropping $60 or so on the two balls and $255 on the autograph tickets, we were on our way to the table to get our balls signed, grab a photo, and meet the guys!

In the photo above, Trent has my third ball in hand to sign and I was still in front of Roy Upchurch. Dre Kirpatrick has his hand on the ball I got Trent to act like he was signing for a photo. The guy on the fence to the left of the video camera is the one that I refer to later in the article. He was the one that refused to talk with me about a deal.

Before we got to the table, the three balls I had were handed over to someone who handed them to the players. I didn’t even get to shake the players hands, say thanks for their service at the University of Alabama, or hand them the balls to get signed. Before I was even in front of the 1st of the three players, Upchurch, all three balls were signed and being handled by a security guard or policeman (can’t remember) and we were being shuffled out of the store. I grabbed the ball for me and asked a handler if I could at least get a picture of Trent Richardson acting like he was signing my ball since it was already signed (photo below shows him acting like he’s signing it). While he obliged that request, my son had his iPod Touch out trying to get a good picture of Richardson. He was almost crying when he asked me, “Dad, can you ask Trent to smile for my picture?”. I told him to just snap the picture, that’s probably the best you’ll get. We were shuffled along.

Trent Richardson simulating the signing of my football at my request for a photo.

With 3 balls in hand while trying to get through a huge crowd of onlookers with my son by my side we moved on. I had not even had a chance to look at the balls.

We get across the hallway to a shoe shore where I was going to let Brett pick out some new tennis shoes. While he was checking out the selection, I was checking out the balls. The 2 white panel balls looked sweet but when I got a look at my ball, my heart sank. IT LOOKS LIKE ABSOLUTE GARBAGE! I can barely make out who is who. The photo of the dark football was taken when I got home with lots of lighting on it to show it better. While I was checking it out in the shoe store, the two guys helping my son with a new pair of shoes were commenting on how bad it looked too. One suggested that I go back over and get my money back. I considered that, but I thought I should wait another day since it was so busy in there and would be for the next couple of hours. Look at the difference in the one above and the two white panel balls below. I should have skipped over the dark, bumpy football and got photos signed for myself. Roy Upchurch’s autograph is decent.

This is the football I am unhappy with. It has tons of lighting on it. It looks even worse in normal lighting.

We grabbed Brett some shoes and I called my wife to see if she wanted me to pick up some dinner. She could tell I was upset and I explained to her a little but didn’t really want to discuss it until I got home. She suggested I go talk with them before I leave.

I stood there telling my son to settle down and give me a sec. After 5 minutes I decided to try to make them a deal. I headed back, asked the police officer keeping the onlookers back to grab someone from the store to talk with me. After he realized I had already gone through the line, he got a guy over there that tried to help. He happened to be the one that told me that they were out of the white panel, 2011 Championship balls. I showed him the ball I was unhappy with and explained to him that I would be willing to let them keep that ball if I could buy something else to get signed without having to pay another $85 for the autographs again. Let me rephrase that… I paid $35 for the ball and an additional $85 for the autographs on it. I was offering to GIVE them that ball back and PURCHASE something else to get signed. The store would not incur any loss since they could give me the 3 autographs again only at the expense of 3 former Alabama player’s 2 seconds of writing. They would make more money off the addition item or items I would purchase and they could even resell the ball I was unhappy with. This guy went into the store to get an actual employee of the store over there to talk to me. Without even listening to my offer, he cut me off with, “NO REFUNDS” and walked off. After standing in line for all that time and spending $300 to be shuttled through the process like an unappreciated prison worker, I was shocked with the short answer without even letting me finish talking. I can understand they were quite busy, but in order for my offer to work… the players needed to be there and if I wait, they will be gone.

After this… I went from disappointed with the whole situation to mad. We left to pick up dinner and return home.

My son is 9, but he’s very bright and he knew I was mad. He tried to cheer me up with a couple of offers. The 1st deal was him offering to get me those autographs when he makes it to the NFL. Cute. I wanted to laugh, but I couldn’t. I can now though. The other offer was for him to get a sharpie and trace over the autographs to make them easier to see. NO BRETT. Please don’t.

On the way home, Brett shared with me his disappointment too. He was upset that he didn’t get to a) talk to Richardson b) shake his hand c) get his picture taken with Richardson, and d) get his Bama hat which is already signed by a couple other players signed. He knew and understood it was busy, but he thought he’d have more than a few seconds. He did get a photo of Richardson snapped with his iPod Touch. I explained to him that each signature was going to cost money and that I wasn’t prepared to pay $85 to get a hat he actually wears signed. The big white panel ball is for Brett anyhow.

When Brett got to meet other Bama players at another store in Tuscaloosa, there was time to chat a minute and the players he’s met have been cordial. Hell, Prince Wimbley even took off his 1992 National Championship ring and let Brett hold and wear it. I wasn’t prepared for this type of situation. The owner of the store, the police, and employees in the store were rushing people out very fast. I was very disappointed in this.

After getting home and telling my wife all about the day, she shared a story that I didn’t know. Apparently she had a bad experience with one of these signings a couple years ago. Terrance Cody was signing at the same place and my wife and daughter were in line to get an autograph for us. He was signing from some time to another time and when that time was up, he got up and left. There were 6-10 people left standing in line. My wife was 4-5 back and she was upset but not as upset as two kids in front of her. They were all left without an autograph.

Let’s recap

• My son disappointed in his chance to meet Trent Richardson.
• I am disappointed in the quality of my prize for waiting for 3 hours and dropping $300.
• There was no interaction with the players we were paying to get autographs from, or very little.
• There were not enough items to purchase for autographs in stock.
• The event started late making it seem like things were more rushed than it should have been.
• I felt as if I paid to be treated as if we were an inconvenience to the players and store staff.

At this point, I am giving the small white panel ball to my father-in-law and I have the large white panel ball I purchased from someone in the line displayed in my son’s room. I am considering using my ball as a very nice, very expensive ball for my son and I to play with in the yard. It’s a quality football and all his other footballs are worn out anyhow.

Bottom line, I won’t be wasting my time or money on any other autograph events put on by this company. Instead, I will wait for Bama Fever opportunities and/or just buy memorabilia from companies that offer autographed items with a certificate of authenticity at retail prices like I have been doing.

Maybe I am overreacting, but for $120, I feel somewhat justified. The ball looks horrible, my feet and back hurt, and my son didn’t enjoy the experience.

ROLL TIDE!

Update: I wasn’t the only one that had a crappy experience today. Apparently some people were led to believe that the autographs were free!

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook tonight!

Went to the mall to get Trent Richardsons autograph..after 30 minutes in line (behind a lot of people that had been waiting way longer) and the radio guy comes across the speaker and says, These autographs are not free by the way, It will be $50….. Needless to say I left & so did a lot of others. I love my Alabama Football but I am not paying anybody $50 for their signature. Ttown Gallery should have been upfront with the people and put that little bit of info in their ads and posters…..

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Let’s break them down going into Monday. Even though I am embarrassed, here’s why today sucked. I made bad decisions and players that normally carry me well, sucked.

I got hammered in this one. Jordy Nelson and Victor Cruz have been rocking it lately. They turned up pretty lame today. Aaron Hernadez hasn’t done squat lately, so I rolled with my backup since he’s done as well as Hernandez lately. I also made a huge mistake and rolled with Grossman since I was concerned about Big Ben’s high ankle sprain. With McFadden being out for the last month and half, I have been living and dying with Blount and CJnoK (Chris Johnson). Neither of the really stepped up today. I GOT SMOKED! I finished the regular season in this one 2nd after leading the league almost all year.

I got beat here and other than going with Tony G over Hernandez, there wasn’t much I could do about it. If I rolled with Hernandez like I did most of the year, I would be up 9-10 points with the Steelers D left. I was the 4th seed in this league and the person I faced was dominant all year.

This matchup, rolling the dice with another TE actually worked but Blount laying an egg killed me. I could have won this one! Watch Gore go for 200 and 2 TDs tomorrow night. I doubt it, that’s why I benched him.

Oh Eli how do I love you, let me count the ways. Holy shit Eli, what have you done? An elite QB can score 4 points in their sleep. With all the injuries at RB (AP and Forte), I was happy to hear AP was going today. He didn’t go far though. I don’t think anyone would play DeAngelo over AP. Don’t hate. I figured Eli would outperform Cam this week. A miracle by Antonio Brown is the only way to save this matchup.

I rocked this league all year. I was 2nd and a strong favorite to meet up with Matt Akers of Windows Phone fame for the championship. That’s not gonna happen now. I got shellshocked. This is a 16 team league and talent is thin. I drafted Freeman thinking he’d have a good year. I was wrong!  There was little I could do to win this week, my players just didn’t perform. I almost rolled with Shonn Greene over AP, wouldn’t have mattered.

Well, I have one more league and it’s a money league. Wish me luck.

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The league set up is 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex (WR/RB), 1 Kicker, and 1 defense. QBs get 4pts for a TD and other offensive players get 6. There is no PPR either.

I am doing 2 leagues and got very similar line ups in both of them. I feel I did very well based on some owners have team biases, Chris Johnson holding out, etc.

Which team do you like best?

Tuscaloosa Tide 5
QB – Philip Rivers
RB – Matt Forte
RB – Adrian Peterson
WR – Dez Bryant
WR – Mike Williams (Tampa Bay)
TE – Brandon Pettigrew
Flex – DeAngelo Williams
K – Alex Henery
Def – Baltimore Ravens
Bench – Eli Manning QB/NYG, Ronnie Brown RB/PHI, Donald Driver WR/GB, Devery Henderson WR/NO, Mike Sims-Walker WR/STL, Kellen Winslow TE/TB

Tuscaloosa Tide 6
QB – Philip Rivers
RB – Chris Johnson
RB – LeSean McCoy
WR – Marques Colston
WR – Miles Austin
TE – Dallas Clark
Flex – DeAngelo Williams
K – Alex Henery
Def – New Orleans Saints
Bench – Eli Manning QB/NYG, Ronnie Brown RB/PHI, Roy Helu RB/Was, Jonny Knox WR/CHI, Mike Sims-Walker WR/STL, Dustin Keller TE/NYJ

As you can see, both teams are very similar in makeup and even players. Which team do you think is strongest? I am liking Tuscaloosa Tide 6 more based mainly on the better receivers while still having good running backs.

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3. I have held my tongue for a long time…

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OK, I don’t have $201,000.00 nor would I pay a player to come to Alabama if I did. Why? Because it’s not legal.

Apparently Cam Newton, the stud of a QB at Auburn, was being pimped out to colleges before committed to Auburn. This doesn’t mean Auburn University (or one of it’s boosters) paid the $200,000 price tag to get Cam to play for them, but it doesn’t mean they didn’t either. It would be a hard choice to turn down $200,000 to play for free somewhere you didn’t even want to play. It’s a known fact that Cam wanted to play for Mississippi State over Auburn but decided on Auburn for his dad.

What am I talking about?

According to ESPN, Mississippi State was offered his services for $180,000. A discount was offered due to Cam’s relationship with Dan Mullen.

Bond said the former teammate told him other schools had already offered $200,000, but since Newton really liked Mississippi State and had a relationship with head coach Dan Mullen dating to when both were at Florida, Mississippi State could get him for $180,000.

John Bond, a former Miss State player told ESPN that one of his former mates contacted him after Cam visited Mississippi State that he was representing Cam and he could guarantee a “National Letter of Intent” for some cash.

The story gets even better too. Apparently this isn’t the start, the NCAA seems to have been looking into this already. Cam Newton’s father told ESPN that the NCAA requested financial records a month ago. It’s also been said that Kenny Rodgers, the person claiming to represent Cam, is already under investigation after Bond reported the incident to the MSU Athletic Director, Greg Byrne. They reported the incident to the NCAA immediately.

What does this news mean for Cam and the Auburn Tigers? Nothing right now, but Cheeznik is going to let Cam continue to play.

“Unfortunately, I can’t comment on it,” Chizik said. “But here’s what I can and I will this say very loud and very clear: Cameron Newton is eligible at Auburn University, period. End of story,”

Roll Tide Roll. Looks like Auburn still won’t get their 1st National Championship and Cam isn’t going to look to good to Heisman voters now either. I really hope that he plays against Alabama. If we win, I want us to win against the player that’s carried the Auburn Tigers. It would cheapen the win if it were any other way.

LOL @ Auburn! You should have thought about it before picking up the laptop thief.

I honestly feel bad though, I don’t know how he is as a person, but I have watched Auburn play 5+ times this year, hoping to see their luck run out, but Cam keeps producing big games and Auburn keeps winning. I have to give credit where it’s due, Cam Newton is an effing superstar. I am not sure how he’ll convert in the NFL next year, but he’s passed up Tim Teebow as the best college QB in the modern era in my book.

ROLL TIDE!

HSZVB2P87WFY

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Knee down, full ball control. The ball popped out when he hit the ground with  the rest of his body.

SEC Officials are horrible this year. I think someone could create a blog just pointing out each blown call and probably make more posts a week than I make on GottaBeMobile.

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Did anyone see the horrible officiating in the Auburn vs. Arkansas game yesterday? I watched the entire game. I sure hate it when Bama is on so late. It forces me to watch games I don’t want to watch. What I did see is that Arkansas got screwed. If you didn’t watch the game, you would look at the 65-43 score and say a couple bad calls wouldn’t have made a difference, but in my opinion, it did. Let’s look at the two main calls.

The 1st one that pissed me off was the Mario Fannin Touchdown. The ball clearly never broke the plane and came out right between the 1 yard line and goal line. A ruling on the field was never announced until the review of the call was announced. The SEC said that one of the officials ruled it a fumble and another said touchdown. Once the ball came out, just before his body landed in the end zone, there was no touchdown signaled and the play was not whistled dead until the fumble was recovered and the player ruled down. When the officials started the review process, they said that the ruling on the field was touchdown and the SEC claimed in a statement that there was not enough visible evidence to overturn it. Bullshit. To be honest though, this horrible call didn’t make that big of a difference. Arkansas put it behind them and continued playing good football. Well, good offense and no defense.

The 2nd bad call was the one that I believe turned the game around. This one was the Broderick Green fumble (or no fumble) that Auburn returned for a touchdown. There seemed to be visible evidence on this one. It could have gone either way though. What I thought I saw was his knee go down before the ball came out. After his knee touched, he arched his back in what looked like an attempt to get more yards out of the play. The ball came out during that, but his knee looked to have touched prior to that. I believe this play sealed the deal for Auburn. Not only did it put Auburn up a good amount again, it was a mental dagger for the team. The defense looked like it gave up after that. I know Cam Newton is a beast, but towards the end, Arkansas was either really tired or they gave up. In addition, down by two scores now, Arkansas started playing more desperate on offense and forced some passes which helped set Auburn up for 2 more scores.

Both teams had horrible defense outings. Both teams had very potent offenses. It was a shoot out for the ages. Auburn might have still won, but I feel the bad calls changed the game and caused Arkansas to play catch up, which led to mistakes. Yes, if you are wondering, I wanted Auburn to lose. Not only am I a Bamer, I saw the need for Arkansas to win for Alabama’s RPI.

This game and the losses by Florida and South Carolina really hurt Alabama ultimately. The Ohio State and Nebraska losses help us a little too though.

As for Alabama’s performance against Ole Miss… The 23-10 win by Bama was boring and still showed big chinks in Bama’s armor. Not only is the defense still iffy, injuries are starting to plague Bama. Penalties galore. I think we’ve already had more penalties this year than all of last year combined. I am very worried for Alabama in the coming weeks. If we can get by LSU and Auburn unscathed, there is no way in hell we don’t get back into the National Championship game talks, especially after the nation saw what Auburn did offensively yesterday.

Who the hell is going to win the SEC East this year? It’s freaking wide open right now. Quite ugly too.

Roll Tide, Screw Auburn!

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Alabama has been riding high and our fans have gotten even more obnoxious than the pre-Saban days. I am not saying that I am glad we lost so they can shut up, but I am saying that they our fans piss me off. At least the fans that call into the Paul Finebaum show. Maybe those are our goofiest fans and I am giving the rest of them a black eye because of that. I know that the fans that are my friends and neighbors are relatively calm and don’t live Alabama football as if it were one of their own kids. So that means they all aren’t as stupid as the “We’re a pro team, the rest of the SEC is college” fans from the radio. It really pisses me off when our fans are so over confident. Simple fact for 2010… Alabama’s defense is nowhere near as good as last year.

Alabama made many mistakes this past weekend in the disappointing loss to South Carolina, but don’t take anything away from USC, they played awesome. I just hope Bama can rebound, learn from their mistakes, and win out. We’ll have to pray that Auburn loses and Les Miles luck runs out. He’s got to hit craps sooner or later. We’ve been waiting for the dice to be passed for 2-3 years now. I do take great pleasure know that Alabama knows how to play and beat QBs like that big tall dude at Auburn. (Cam Newton) Alabama players have lots of training on how to beat Tebow, so Newton should be a breeze since he’s not as experienced as Tebow was. We’ll see soon enough though.

The Braves are down 2 games to 1 now. I seriously hope that Conrad shapes up for game 4. I would hate to see another 3 error game. (2 of which cost a run each)

The Falcons won 20-10 today to go to 4-1 overall. Can you believe there are no undefeated teams in the NFL this early?

Last bit of sports news is my Fantasy Football team. Holy shit… I am 1-4 now. I need to spend more time and find some players to replace these scrubs I drafted.

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Heisman Trophy winner, Mark Ingram was outed by TMZ yesterday for being at a high end draft party in Washington DC back in May. This could easily be grounds for NCAA investigation, but the report was quickly stifled since Mark consulted the University of Alabama compliance department to get approval from the NCAA to attend. He was told that as long as he provided receipts for his expenses, all would be ok.

The University of Alabama says Ingram is on the up and up. The Compliance Department tells us, “Mark asked if he could visit Joe Haden at his home in Baltimore. We checked with the NCAA and they approved this trip as long as Mark provided receipts for his expenses.”

The question I have is why did TMZ even run the story if they knew the trip was on the up and up? Did they know that millions of Alabama fans jaws would hit the floor when this scare started circulating around the interwebz? Well, it worked. When I 1st saw the headlines I was like, “OMG, Here we go again.”. We still have our fingers crossed waiting to hear about Marcell Dareus’ fate. He is being investigated by the NCAA regarding an agent party he attended in Miami. He is on the preseason SEC 1st Team Defense and we are definitely going to need him playing this year.

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Free agency is part of pro sports nowadays, so this part was no biggie in all this. I don’t care that he left Cleveland either. I don’t feel as if he owed that city a single thing. That city owes him for bringing the additional revenue a superstar brings in during home games. I didn’t really care where he went. What I didn’t care for was how big of a deal was being made. Come on ESPN, you gave the dude a show called “the Decision”. Business wise, I am sure ESPN benefited greatly from the show, but when did the athletes start dictating programming with free agency choices? Ridiculous really, they already get too much money.

Lebron seems to be a great person, but I can’t help my feelings that this was all too much for a team choice. He’s already proven many times over that he is a great player. I wish that Mo Williams could get a gig down in Miami too. Mo is a University of Alabama product and I loved seeing him play along side Lebron.

I wish you luck in Miami Lebron. Hopefully 3 great players can coexist without jealously. If that can be accomplished, Miami will win a championship in 1-2 years.

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