Garth helping Vandy pay their fine.
It’s already been an historic season for the Vanderbilt Commodores football team, who scored their biggest win in program history a couple weeks ago when they knocked of the then-#1 Alabama Crimson Tide, and then followed it up with two straight wins to find themselves ranked in the top 25 for the first time since 2013.
Of course that win over Alabama did end up costing them. During the wild celebration, fans tore down the goalpost and ended up carrying it nearly 3 miles from the stadium, all the way past the bars on Broadway and throwing it into the Cumberland River in downtown Nashville.
Vanderbilt students tearing down the goalposts: pic.twitter.com/e6j8gaood6
— Aria Gerson (@aria_gerson) October 5, 2024
BREAKING: The goal post has arrived onto Broadway 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 pic.twitter.com/RKdVUrfcXD
— Aaron Grisham (@AGrisham247) October 6, 2024
Goalpost made it to Broadway!!!!! pic.twitter.com/P6j4UZpA5p
— Weston (@guyincornfields) October 6, 2024
IT IS IN. THE GOALPOST MADE IT TO THE CUMBERLAND RIVER! pic.twitter.com/gYe4H8q7N8
— Grey Cotham (@gcotham21) October 6, 2024
The SEC ended up fining Vandy $100,000 for storming the field after the win, although I’m sure that’s a deal that Vanderbilt would take any day of the week: Pay $100,000 for beating Alabama, the #1 team in the country? Worth it.
The fine goes directly to the opponent, so that means that Vandy ended up having to pay Bama $100k for beating them, but they decided to auction off some memorabilia from the game in order to pay the fine. And by memorabilia, I mean the goalpost.
Secure a piece of history below ⬇️
🔗 https://t.co/ZUUxD9f8FA pic.twitter.com/NFb8vB6cRj
— #25 Vanderbilt Football (@VandyFootball) October 7, 2024
The school chopped up the goalpost (once it was recovered from the river) and sold it to fans for up to $4,035 a pop (40-35 was the final score of the game), and also auctioned off things like the pylons from the endzones and signed football helmets.
There’s no doubt that Vandy ended up raising more than enough to cover the fine. But Garth Brooks decided he wanted to help out too after the school’s big win.
During his Inside Studio G livestream last night, the country music superstar revealed that he had purchased part of the goalpost to add to his downtown Nashville bar, Friends In Low Places. But it wasn’t a part that was for sale to the general public: Turns out Garth bought the padding from the goalpost.
“So we were talking about Vanderbilt tearing down the goalpost and going by Friends. They got fined so bad that they had to cut the goalpost up in pieces and sell the pieces to pay off the fines, which was great. What they didn’t sell was the pad that was on it. We bought it. We had to because you’re raising money for ’em. We had to.
It’s going to be in Sevens Club up there. We’ll see how many we can get the guys to sign it. But what I love about that whole thing was, ‘Shock the world.’ That whole saying was so cool, because I love the underdog. Love it when the underdog gets a shot.”
The Sevens Club is a private space on the third floor of his Broadway bar, which serves as an area for private events and live cooking shows from his wife, Trisha Yearwood.
I guess that’s just the kind of “cool stuff, slick stuff, neat stuff” you can expect to see in Garth’s bar.