See It to Believe It: A Tennessee Football Player Says Something Nice About Kentucky

I am at a loss for words. This is the part where I say something creative to hook the reader. There should be something snappy to give you an idea of what’s next, but I am so dumbfounded that it is impossible. A Tennessee football player actually said something nice about Kentucky.

You’ve interacted with Tennessee fans. To describe them as “low-down” is a polite way of putting it. Their football coaches and players won’t say it into a microphone, but they show the lowest regard for their border state rival. John Schlarman described it best before his final game on the sideline.

“Don’t fool yourself for one second. These mother f***ers don’t respect you,” he told the Kentucky football team. “They don’t respect your ass. You gotta go take it from them.”

There is one exception to this standard: Arian Foster.

You might remember him best as a Fantasy Football phenom who earned All-Pro honors during his time with the Houston Texans. Before that, he wore that puke-in-a-pumpkin orange in Knoxville. In his post-playing days, he dabbles in the podcasting world. Many times he’s been asked about his favorite environment in the SEC. There are louder SEC stadiums than Kroger Field, but Foster’s favorite SEC venue outside of Neyland Stadium is the home of the Kentucky Wildcats.

“They have my favorite SEC stadium. I just love it, dog,” Foster said on a recent edition of Barstool’s Macrodosing.

A former Tennessee football player saying something nice about Kentucky. I still can’t believe it. Now, what comes next makes more sense.

“I think it was the circumstances in which we played Kentucky. It was overcast. The way it’s set up, the aesthetics of it, the deep blue. I love blue. The sea of blue with our white (uniforms) that popped, and we always had good games.”

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The game that made Foster fall in love with Kroger Field is the game where I learned to hate Tennessee. It was 2007. The Vols needed a win to earn an SEC Championship Game berth. A win for the Wildcats would have snapped a decades-long losing streak, giving that unforgettable team a third signature win at home, and the program’s first 8-win regular season since 1984. Lones Sieber had a chance to win the game in the second overtime, but his 34-yard field goal was blocked. The Wildcats fell 52-50 in the fourth overtime.

“The environment was crazy,” Foster recalled. “I never had a four overtime game before. It was insane.”

It was also a rare instance where Tennessee actually respected its competition on the other side of the line of scrimmage. That 2007 team had multiple All-SEC selections and plenty of guys who spent years playing on Sundays.

“We played against somebody who I played against in the league who was nice, Wesley Woodyard. Cold-ass linebacker,” said Foster. “To go against somebody who’s a worthy opponent and the stakes are on the line, a four-overtime game. It was special.”

Okay, so it’s a bit of a back-handed compliment. Nevertheless, that’s the nicest thing you’ll ever hear a Tennessee football player say about the Kentucky Wildcats.