The first order of 2014 business for members of Alabama's congress was pretty straightforward. Settle any outstanding Iron Bowl bets.
The Alabama Senate convened for the first time this year Tuesday and Senator Roger Bedford and Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh needed to get their bet out of the way.
Bedford, an Alabama fan, had to wear a big Auburn eagle hat because of Chris Davis' field goal return on Nov. 30. That gave Auburn a 34-28 last-second win over Alabama.
Marsh said Bedford called him during the middle of the football season and proposed the bet. He said it was well before it became apparent Auburn would be a strong enough team to play for the national championship.
"I was being a good sport, and quite honestly, I thought I'd be wearing an Alabama hat today," said Marsh, wearing an orange Auburn ballcap.
Though Bedford made it clear where his loyalties still are. He closed his remarks on Tuesday with a "Roll Tide." Though we have to wonder if that was simply because of the bet or if that's a normal occurrence in Alabama politics.
And who says bipartisanship isn't dead? Bedford is a Democrat and Marsh is a Republican. If something as divisive as the Iron Bowl can help settle bets in Alabama state politics, let's extrapolate this out and imagine how the United States Congress could solve problems with bets on sports.
If Democrats picked one team in the Super Bowl while Republicans had another and the winner's budget proposal was the one voted into law, you can bet that both sides would work feverishly in the two weeks leading up to the game to find a compromise. Neither side would want to risk the other side getting what it wanted. Our government could suddenly become efficient.
At the very least, it'd be better than some of the dysfunction we have now.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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