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WHAT’S FIT TO PRINT: We often lament the sorry state of journalism in America --particularly here in Washington -- where reporters are open political advocates and consider themselves as important to the power structure as the people they cover. The old days of the 5W’s and the H (who, what when, where, why and how) are a distant memory, and the reporters code is now, “how do I get on TV and help a Democrat.”

If not captivated by political subjectivity, reporters are also allowed to embarrass themselves further through the apparent total lack of editorship at major newspapers. Not only are stories replete with factual mistakes (fact checkers were fired years ago, and papers wonder why nobody believes them anymore), but today’s reporters all seem to think they are the next F. Scott Fitzgerald. Half of their daughters are named Zelda. It is not unusual to read a report of a Basketball game in the Washington Post or other “major” newspapers, which is so full of descriptive rhetoric that you never find out the score.

While the reporters are all blowing smoke, their editors were last month arguing before the Federal Communications Commission that their industry should receive federal tax exemptions, and some even want government subsidies to save their dying craft and to continue to operate as a “vital public service,” critical to the survival of the democracy that they constantly undermine through their own blatant partisanship – sort of like Pravda complaining to Stalin that it wasn’t being taken seriously enough.

SUPERVISION: They told the FCC said that online journalism could not be trusted, as it was not subject to “professional supervision,” ignoring that if they were supervising themselves there would be no need for alternative avenues of expression and this argument would never have arisen in the first place. The American press has ironically, become a metaphor for the victim-hood it invented. Having single-mindedly dreamed up and championed, every single-issue cause in sight, it now wonders (not surprisingly) whether or not it doesn’t qualify itself.

All that being said, every once and while, one still finds a piece of news writing that is interesting, and makes one feel part of a moment – where else but online? In the aftermath of the Florida-Alabama football came last week, we came across this very entertaining blow-by-blow account of the event by Clay Travis, a writer for NCAA Football Fanhouse carried on American Online. He did a wonderful writing job, using constant updates to Twitter to describe the event as it unfolded before him, which we would like to share with you, football fan of not.

ATLANTA – Florida is the new money of the Southeastern Conference: showy, driving a car they want to make sure you notice, never seeing a bottle of hair gel that doesn't look attractive, and generally making certain that their national championship bling is as well-disguised as a rapper whose first album just went double platinum. The Gators run a fashionable offense with a demi-god at quarterback, they've been on CBS 23 times in their 35 SEC games over the past four seasons and they want you to bow before their dominance. Kiss their rings.

Even the Gator uniforms on this Saturday are new for this season. The Gators, perhaps betting that Tim Tebow might ascend into the skies after the final horn, wear white from head to toe. Love them or hate them, no matter your personal feelings as a fan, you know the Gators are good.

Alabama is different. On Saturday they take the field in crisp Crimson jerseys and helmets and white pants; Nothing flashy. They're the colors and uniforms they've worn for generations. Alabama feels like they own the SEC and that they don't need to advertise that fact as ostentatiously as the new money Gators. After all, Alabama has 21 SEC titles, most in the league by eight, a bevy of national championships -- numbers differ -- and a solid work ethic rooted in offensive- and defensive-line dominance.

PREEMINENCE: Even still, while Bama fans believe their program is still the premier one in the SEC, in the 10 years since the Crimson Tide last won an SEC championship in 1999, the Gators have won two national titles and three SEC titles. What's worse for 'Bama, since 1990 the Gators have eight SEC titles to the Crimson Tide's two. So for Crimson Tide fans, this game represents their chance to put the Internet billionaires in their place. To establish once and for all that, new money be damned, they are still the preeminent program in the nation's best league.

So this game represents not just a contest on a field, but a cultural conflict, an epic tilt between two fan bases without a lot in common and two styles of play that share very little. Lots of programs in the SEC don't like each other, but often that's because the schools share so much in common.

Alabama and Florida? They're as different as two Southern schools can be.

Even the states reflect the difference in style. Florida, a languid after thought before the air-conditioning boom brought in an influx of northeasterners and turned the state into an entirely new environment. Explosive growth, outsiders, sunshine and money all combined into a perfect mix to create football dominance in the state's preeminent university. The state of Florida then, serves as a perfect metaphor for Gator football, explosive, new, and impossible to ignore.

Meanwhile, Alabama continues to plod along, not that much different in terms of population or growth in 1988 as in 2009. Except for one thing; football matters just as much today as it ever has. But suddenly the Crimson Tide has a new upstart challenger, the new money SEC champ Florida Gators. And they hate each other, oh they surely do.

Follow along with me as we count down the most-watched game in SEC history.

1. Strained faces are everywhere in the CNN Center next door to the dome.

As the winds buffeted down the concourse outside the Georgia Dome, Alabama and Florida fans stood in lines 58 deep for Chik-fil-A and assorted other food court delicacies.

The mood was curiously somber, like you were certain, as was the case, that someone's day was going to be wrecked in a few hours and just hoping it wasn't your own. Occasionally a "Go Gators" chant or a "Roll Tide Roll" rang out over the crowded concourse, but for the most part fans were quiet.

An Alabama fan wearing an understated ensemble of hound’s-tooth cap, bright red Alabama pants with white A's sewn in them with a red-and-white fronded pom-pom draped out of his back pocket and a red Bama pullover, shook his head as he greeted a fellow fan, "I just hope we can smile after this one is over," he said, not smiling.

2. My friend Tardio pays $225 for a seat in the upper deck of the Georgia Dome.

He later texts me, "I would have paid more just so I didn't have to stand in the cold anymore."

3. Inside the Georgia Dome, the stands are over half-full with an hour to go before kickoff; seriously, an hour beforehand.

When I was a kid my dad always wanted to get there an hour before the game started. We'd sit on bleachers and stare down at the field as the clock ticked away. As a kid, this was the most awful moment; the anticipation was enough to kill you.

An hour has never seemed so long. Now thousands of Alabama and Florida fans agree. Stomachs are rumbling, hands are shaking nerves are atwitter as the clock ticks down. By 30 minutes before kickoff, the Georgia Dome is almost completely full and it's already getting loud.

4. Speaking of the cultural conflict, I overheard an Alabama girl speaking for women across the state of Alabama, "You can tell who the 'Bama girls are, they have class. Gator girls have no class. They're all dirty." The antipathy that Alabama girls bear for Florida girls cannot be understated. Putting this into context, I think 'Bama girls hate Florida girls more than 'Bama men hate Tim Tebow, Mike Shula and Phil Fulmer combined.

5. Regional potato chip company Golden Flake maintains an amazing marketing power over the SEC. There are oodles of free Golden Flakes lying everywhere in the press box.

Is this the weirdest connection of major national program with minor potato chip company in the history of football? I think so. Every time I see these Golden Flake commercials, I'm baffled how the SEC is so connected to this product. Do you think Golden Flake signed an endorsement deal in 1933 when the SEC was formed?

6. I'm seated at midfield in the press box right where Florida and 'Bama fans meet beneath us in the expensive seats.

In 2008, the SEC altered the seating patterns so that fans of rival teams now meet at midfield. Fans used to meet in the end zones. In general, I'm assuming this was done based on the Travis Rooting Rule: If you're going to cheer loudly, pay more for your seats because the people sitting around you have something to lose.

People in the upper deck end zones will stab you in the temple with sharpened ends of their pompoms if you have the audacity to stand up during big plays. They have absolutely nothing to lose up there.

So while this seating arrangement might lessen fights, this also means that the rooting atmosphere inside the dome is changed. If a team is close to the end zone of the rival side, it's incredibly loud, deafening almost. In front of your fans, it's quiet. Basically, the cheering isn't evenly distributed on all parts of the field anymore.

7. Heath Shuler of Tennessee is introduced as a legend of the game, and 'Bama and Florida fans boo in unison for the first, and only, time of the day.

Somewhere, Redskins fans are pumping their fists in solemn agreement.

8. As the game nears, I'm reminded more and more of what this game reminds me of an old school Mike Tyson heavyweight fight.

Remember how excited we all were every time Tyson fought when we were kids? There was so much anticipation for those bouts you could spend months living off the excitement. Then they finally arrived and Tyson would knock someone out within 30 seconds. For some reason, I've got the same fear about this game as kickoff nears. We've all built this game up so much in our minds that it's almost impossible for the game to live up to expectations.

9. As the tension builds in the stadium and the teams enter the field, Alabama's flag-bearer carrying crimson A flag almost flattens the Florida flag-bearers.

Can you imagine if they'd run into each other and the game had been stopped to carry them off the field? The stupid flag-bearers? Even they're intense to begin the game.

10. As the third SEC championship game of his career commences, Tim Tebow is curiously calm.

I've noticed this of late, the Tebow of freshman season, when he ran onto the field and exploded in emotion has given way to a more silent player as the game commences.

11. 'Bama takes the opening possession down the field, bombs a 48-yard field goal and on their next possession Mark Ingram scores to make it 9-0 Crimson Tide.

Time for mind-blowing stat time; believe it or not, 9-0 is the biggest deficit Florida has faced in a game since the 2008 Capital One bowl against Michigan. That's 27 games ago.

12. My buddy Tardio sends along the best sign in the Alabama section where he is sitting, "Shhh, Dunlap is sleeping."

Already Carlos Dunlap's (suspended for DUI asleep at the wheel at a stop light) absence may have added to Florida’s inability to get to the quarterback. The Gators can't get any pressure on Alabama QB Greg McElroy with their front four.

13. I've officially seen everything. Alabama's punter, P.J. Fitzgerald, makes an open field tackle on Florida's Brandon James to save a touchdown.

How many times would Fitzgerald take James down in the open field if this happened 10 times? Once, twice? It's an amazing play that serves notice this might be 'Bama's night.

14. A few plays later, McElroy flexes for the Florida sideline after throwing a block for Trent Richardson. Next play McElroy zips a completion for 34 yards on third-and-3.

Who knew that McElroy had this much swagger in him? He's channeling Tim Tebow and right now he's becoming the most dominant player on the field.

15. As the second quarter commences, Florida begins to bring safeties and linebackers on exotic blitzes.

Alabama gets caught on one of these blitzes on second down from inside Florida's 20 and settles for a field goal.  It's 12-3 Alabama.

16. And then just as it appears that Florida is going to get run out of the Georgia Dome in the first half, Tebow and the Gators go 70 yards in 1:34 to slice Bama's lead to 12-10.

During this drive Tebow carries twice for first downs. Leaving me wondering, is there any player that feeds off momentum more than Tebow? He gets an awful lot of attention for his fiery, Rick Rude, circa-1989 antics on the field, but the thing that is key about Tebow's celebrations is that getting fired up makes him play better. Some guys expend their energy or get overly psyched up with their celebrations. Tebow doesn't.

17. But on this day, Alabama answers Tebow's enthusiasm with a 69-yard screen reception by Mark Ingram.

Ingram follows up that catch with a three-yard score to put 'Bama back up by nine, 19-10.

18. On the next drive, Florida's Caleb Sturgis kicks a field goal that sounds like a shotgun going off.

When I kick a football you can barely hear the foot making contact. When Caleb Sturgis kicks a field goal you can hear the sound of the kick even with 70,000 people screaming at the same time. The Gators now trail 19-13 and will receive the ball to begin the second half.

19. Halftime commentary: A. The girl goes 9-for-10 on passes into a large Dr. Pepper bottle to win over $100K in the halftime contest. Worst of all for the guy who lost to her has to stand and watch her coolly drop pass No. 9 to beat him.

He will never live down this defeat. For the rest of his life people are going to recognize him and say, "Why do you look familiar?" And this guy is going to immediately take off running in the opposite direction.

Also, Archie Manning's sports coat is extraordinary. A couple of months ago I said Archie's hair reminded me of the hairstyle that Scarlett's first husband -- the one who died of TB before the war started -- rocked in Gone With the Wind. But that sports coat?

That's the sports coat you wear if you've sired two Super Bowl winning quarterbacks. It just screams, "My sperm is not ordinary!" Neither are my jackets. Even if they're taken from a 1963 love seat.

20. 'Bama stops Tecmo Te-Bo on the first drive of the second half and McElroy, outplaying Tebow, hits Colin Peak for a touchdown.

Suddenly it's 26-13 Bama and the Gators are on the ropes. Across from me Gator fans are silent, in shock. After 22 consecutive wins, the Gators' knees are buckling and their fans don't know quite how to respond. Gators cheers are tremulous, quiet, drowned out by Crimson clad fans chanting "Ala-Bama."

21. Tebow, completely and utterly unable to respond for the first time in years, cannot match McElroy's touchdown pass, and 'Bama goes down the field for Ingram's third touchdown of the game.

Now it's 32-13 Bama and the biggest game in SEC history is close to becoming a knockout.

22. On this day, McElroy out-Tebow's Tebow. McElroy whirls and spins, dives and slides. He's on his way to completing 12 passes for 239 yards and dominating more than any other player on the field.

Later, asked about his muscle pose directed towards the Gator bench, McElroy will say, "I don't have a lot of muscle to show off."

23. Midway through the fourth quarter Javiar Arenas intercepts Tebow in the end zone and later Tebow throws behind his receiver on fourth down.

And that's the way the Tebow era ends, with a whimper not a roar. All around the Georgia Dome, the Alabama fans begin to crow, their "Rammer Jammer, Yellow Hammer" chant rising into the gray-clad Georgia Dome roof.

Meanwhile, Florida Gator fans, rocking their new money national championship shirts and hats, begin to file out of the stadium. With two minutes left in the game, there are hardly any Gators left in the stands. They've all left to walk away in the cold Atlanta night.

24. Down in front of me a man tosses his houndstooth hat, symbol of old Alabama money, high into the sky, catches it, roars "Ala" as loud as he can.

What's old is new once more. Meanwhile, the player in the No. 15 jersey who entered this season chasing the title of greatest to ever play the game, stands on the sideline with tears streaming down his face.  In the end, there is but two words to sum up this game: Tebow wept.