On the nine hour drive to Hoover, Alabama for SEC Media Days this past July, I turned to my friend Maddy Glab and asked if there were any players in the SEC older than Elvis Fisher. After the NCAA granted him a 6th year for sitting out all of last season because of a knee injury, The Missouri offensive lineman coined his own twitter hastag: #6yearproblems. The hashtag grew wildly popular during the spring and by fall camp his teammates were referring to him as “grandpa.”
Anyway, back to being en route to Hoover. While Maddy drove, I went through rosters on each SEC’s team website. I looked at each player listed as a senior or a redshirt senior. I checked the year they graduated high school or the year each player was born, which ever was written in the bio. I had gone through the entire SEC West and most of the East. I checked Maddy’s organized list of players from the East scheduled to attend Media Days. Finally, after looking at Vanderbilt quarterback Jordan Rodgers’ player bio and Wikipedia page, it became clear that Fisher was not the oldest player in the SEC. Rodgers would turn 24 years old the month after SEC Media Days. Fisher doesn’t turn 24 until October 25th. Both Rodgers and Fisher were scheduled to speak on the first day of SEC Media Days, so on the drive there, I began tweeting about my newfound information.
That next morning, Rodgers sat in front of TV Cameras in one of the many media rooms and admitted he didn’t know too much about Missouri, but that he’d recently learned that he and Fisher were the oldest players in the SEC. Later that afternoon during Missouri’s alloted time, Fisher said he’d spoken to the quarterback on twitter, Jordan asked him if he was bringing his walker or his cane to Media Days. After three failed attempts in between sessions, the two never got to meet at Media Days.
Although both are a couple of the oldest players in the conference, one has aged a little bit more than the other. Jordan Rodgers has a head full of thick hair while Fisher jokes about his balding issue. Rodgers looks like he’s 24, Fisher is the first to point out that he looks like he’s 42. Fisher makes more of an event about this year being his 6th year. As a joke, he made a demand video back in August in the parking lot of Memorial Stadium, rattling off a list of expectations that needed to be met before fall camp.
Fisher and Rodgers play each other tonight at Memorial Stadium in Columbia. They will finally get to meet each other in person for the first time.
Ashley Zavala 