Matt Deaton, a 42-year-old East Tennessean, remembers the exact moment when he decided being a rabid college football fan had become too toxic.
It was in the fall of 2014, moments after his beloved Tennessee Volunteers football team had suffered a crushing 10-9 defeat in Knoxville at the hands of the visiting Florida Gators. It was the 10th consecutive Florida win in the series, and Deaton was emotionally spent.
As he strode angrily out of Neyland Stadium that day, Deaton barged through the Florida band shouting “Out of my way! Out of my way!” The Florida band, it seems, had ticked him off royally by playing “Rocky Top” – the Tennessee anthem – inside the stadium.
When a member of the band challenged his boorishness, he offered to deposit the Florida drummer’s drumsticks where the sun doesn’t shine.
And then, almost immediately, he felt a wave of guilt.