Monday’s night’s West Coast “beat down” of Alabama in the National Championship game was not the most embarrassed I’ve ever been of being a Crimson Tide fan. In fact, I was proud they were there at all.

Nor was I ashamed to lose or even lose badly. Take a deep breath and remember those who play college football are kids: 18 to 22 years old. That’s as true in Alabama as it is in Texas. Sometimes, things go wrong in a hurry, despite your best plans. If you don’t know that, you’ve never had teenagers.

No, the most embarrassed I’ve been as a Tide fan was Dec. 29, 1998, at the first Music City Bowl. Alabama played a favored Virginia Tech team at Vanderbilt Stadium and, despite a close first half, got thrashed in the second half on a misting, frigid evening.

That didn’t embarrass me, either. I was embarrassed when an aging Tide fan — he’d have been about my age now — stood behind the Alabama bench and screamed at the players, “You should be ashamed!”

Ashamed? Of losing a football game? One hulking lineman, beaten and likely miserable to be standing there in the dark cold, turned to give the loudmouth a look that was more mournful than scornful. That was one sad moment.

Me, I’d scored two tickets to travel from Tuscaloosa to Nashville for that game. I took my son, then 13, and though the Tide lost, we collected discarded stadium cups as trophies. Lorrie Morgan sang at halftime — we were in our country music phase, and Ms. Morgan is still breathtaking — and we had a great time. We had dinner at a Shoney’s — I was on a wife-and-four-kids budget — and stayed in a chain hotel.

The next day, we drove to Murfreesboro to visit the Stones River battlefield. How cool was that?

I bring this up because — alas! — I’ve seen some of the post-game Facebook comments not from the Alabama foes but from their fans. Clemson had surpassed Alabama as kingpin, one fan wrote; another suggested Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa could not play “under pressure.” That’s the quarterback who, as a freshman, took Bama back from a 13-point deficit to Georgia to win the title in overtime last year. The one who surgically destroyed Oklahoma in the semis a week ago.

There’s always unhappiness in the face of a loss — pure panic in the face of a rout. That was a rout — not unlike Alabama’s blowout, 38-7 loss to Nebraska in the Orange Bowl in 1972. Bama was AP’s national champion the next year. Things change.

I’ve got lots of history at Alabama, including my years there in graduate school and three stretches living in Tuscaloosa. I love the school today no less than last year, when they won the big game. That won’t change.

The communication program prepared me for a career. I took my children to faculty concerts when they were in grade school. I became fast friends with old professors and with people at the UA Press. I used to jog the campus and prayed at the campus church. I researched a thesis in the dusty library basement. My daughter did a monthlong statistics program there when she was in junior high, a confidence builder. My son went to soccer camp there. And on a cold January morning, as a young reporter, I stood by Bear Bryant’s gravesite at his burial.

So I regret the loss and I can understand why some folks might be gleeful; growing up in New England, I hated the New York Yankees.

We’re No. 2, better than everyone but No. 1. Somehow, I’ll live with that.

Ken Stickney is editor of The Port Arthur News.