There’s nothing like turning our attention to the BCS National Championship Game with a little game of what I like to call “Who’s Got the Sports Karma?” This is where I compare both teams – in this case the No. 1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide – by not using boring stuff like statistics and offensive or defensive matchups, but by what they’ve done to earn our “Awww”s and “That’s cool”s. And as you can see in that banner pic, ‘Bama is already going after one of our soft spots – the troops.

Specifically, Tide fan Justin Crisler founded an effort known as “Tide for Troops”, and through his Facebook group “Can I get a Roll Tide?” he was able to make 180 shirts bearing his group’s rally cry to deliver to a Huntsville, AL unit that deploys to Guantanamo Bay this weekend. Additionally, Crisler was able to send shirts along to the 167th Infantry Battalion in Afghanistan so they could cheer on their beloved Tide as well.

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In case you’re new to the program, we have a short list of topics that we will always post about, no matter how non-sports related or inconsequential they are, including but not limited to:

1) Kate Upton
2) Animals in costumes
3) Soldiers returning home to surprise their families at sporting events
4) Religions and politics and how much your point of view is wrong compared to ours

Because we already successfully disproved six religions and finally reached quorum in our meeting of the Rhinoceros Party of Canada yesterday, we’re going to focus on No. 3 today, as the Houston Texans had a little halftime deal last Sunday that was right up our alley.

Chief Warrant Officer Eric Spoerle had been serving in Afghanistan for the last seven months, and he was able to come home to see his wife and two sons during halftime of the Texans’ 29-17 victory over the Indianapolis Colts. Spoerle’s family was brought onto the field, as they thought Eric’s service was simply being honored and they’d be receiving some Texans jerseys, until Houston’s mascot, Toro, came out on a cart and revealed their dad from under box that looked like a Christmas present.

You can watch the video after the jump, while I clean up this box of Christmas dust that I just opened.

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I’m a sucker for anything that combines sports with appreciating the men and women of our Armed Forces. There aren’t enough videos of soldiers showing up at ballgames to surprise their families, and I was even pulling against my own alma mater against Southern Miss on Saturday night because there were soldiers attending the game to cheer on the Golden Eagles before they were deployed yesterday. And I know that I certainly can’t pay tribute to or even understand our soldiers the same way that Ufford can – hell, I can’t even write it as well as Justin Timberlake. So I’ll just reiterate that I love it when we can use sports to honor our troops.

That said, the 2011 Quicken Loans Carrier Classic was absolutely amazing. Just the idea of playing a basketball game on an aircraft carrier is incredible enough, and God knows we could have just sent a couple mid-majors to play on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson, but we sent the No. 1 team in the country, the UNC Tar Heels, and Michigan State to put on a show for our service men and women. UNC, of course, defeated the Spartans 67-55 and the action was less than thrilling. But the No. 1 team and another perennial contender agreeing to play outdoors in the middle of the ocean is simply awesome.

As if the game wasn’t enough, President Barack Obama and the First Lady attended and addressed the troops, and Magic Johnson and James Worthy represented their college teams and took pictures as well. For some reason Pamela Anderson was there, and I assume it’s because she was just floating by. Most importantly, Brooklyn Decker was there. Although, to properly honor our troops, Kate Upton and Marissa Miller should have also been there. But I’d say that this was just good enough.

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Actually, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is a New York Jets fan, but he lost a bet with Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravenstahl when the Steelers defeated the Jets in the AFC Championship. So his punishment for his blind faith was having to wear this Hines Ward jersey as he put together care packages for the troops. The contents of these care packages? Entourage DVDs. If you ask me, it seems like the troops lost the bet.

(Via The Gothamist.)