1. ‘Lone Survivor’ Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell’s speech to the Bama football team will floor you
A Marcus Luttrell speech with “Lone Survivor” clips and Alabama football highlights laid over the top of it lit up the Internet on Nov. 19. After originally being leaked on a file sharing site and presented as Luttrell’s speech to the Alabama football team, it turns out it was probably not the exact speech Luttrell delivered to the Tide.
The one he did deliver, though, sounds like it was every bit as inspirational as the video above.
“It was awesome,” tight end Brian Vogler said of Luttrell’s remarks. “I was sitting on the edge of my seat. Any time you can talk to somebody like that, you’re completely locked in to everything that’s going on, every word that’s coming out of his mouth. Honestly, once he got done talking I wanted to run through a brick wall. That’s how exciting it was.”
The Yellowhammer post was shared a whopping 316,300 times on Facebook alone. That’s what the kids call “viral.”
2. Mike Rowe’s must-read response to an Alabamian who asked why he shouldn’t follow his passion
Mike Rowe of “Dirty Jobs” has made a habit of going viral on the Internet by responding to fan questions.
On Oct. 1 it was Stephen Adams of Auburn, Alabama who wrote in questioning a now famous speech in which Rowe said “follow your passion” was the worst advice he’d ever received. Rowe’s response to Adams was featured in full on Yellowhammer and included the takeaway line, “Passion is too important to be without, but too fickle to be guided by. Which is why I’m more inclined to say, ‘Don’t Follow Your Passion, But Always Bring it With You.'”
With almost 200,000 Facebook shares and rising, Rowe’s wisdom shared on Yellowhammer found an audience all over the world.
3. Bama Sugar Bowl mom ‘sorry’ but would ‘do it again if I had to’
After a video surfaced online shortly after the 2014 Sugar Bowl showing a female Alabama fan “going off the top rope” on some college students, the Internet was left wondering who the woman was. That is, until Yellowhammer was the first media outlet to track her down and interview her.
Michelle Prichett of Sweet Water, Alabama shared her story with Yellowhammer Jan. 3.
“I’m embarrassed. I love The Tide and I apologize to all the players and to Coach Saban and to the entire fan base. I’m sorry,” she said. “Coach Saban’s going to say ‘those crazy fans don’t know how to act.’ And I wasn’t intoxicated either. I want people to know that. I’d had a couple of drinks, but I was not intoxicated.”
But Pritchett said she’d do it all again if she had to.
“I hate to say it, but I’d do it again if I had to. I’m not going to let anyone go after my son.”
It’s unclear how many social media shares this article received because the link was broken at some point, but undoubtedly hundreds of thousands. This was the first sports-related article Yellowhammer had picked up by major national media outlets like ESPN, Fox Sports and Sports Illustrated.
4. Alabama-based surgeon to the stars pleads with parents to give young athletes a break
Every now and then a story goes viral that we just didn’t see coming. An article about giving kids a break from sports didn’t seem like a likely candidate for viral success, but 80,000 Facebook shares later, it was one of our most-read stories of the year.
Nowadays it’s not abnormal for a middle-schooler to go in for a surgery to repair a repetitive stress injury, and world-renowned Alabama-based doctor James Andrews — orthopedic surgeon to the stars — has had enough.
His insight resonated with parents all over the country.
5. Remington Arms moving 2,000+ jobs from NY to Alabama
Yellowhammer was first to break the news that Remington Arms was expanding its operations by leaving behind the anti-gun politics of New York and coming to the Second Amendment-loving Yellowhammer State.
This story sent shockwaves across the country the morning of Feb. 15 and went on to be shared right at 100,000 times on Facebook.
“In Alabama we strongly support and uphold our great U.S. Constitution on which our nation and our states were founded,” Gov. Bentley told us. “The Constitution serves to protect individual Freedoms. Among them are those guaranteed in the Second Amendment, which protects the right of the people to keep and bear Arms. We will protect the Freedoms of individuals and welcome any one or any company to Alabama to discover as so many have, that we are a pro-business state filled with good, hardworking people.”
BONUS: Our most-watched video of the year — 90 seconds of Nick Saban’s most memorable meltdowns
[jwplatform WamjOEwx]
Like this article? Follow me on Twitter and let me know what you think.
— Cliff Sims (@Cliff_Sims) December 3, 2014
Don’t miss out! Subscribe today to have Alabama’s leading headlines delivered to your inbox.