The 10-year anniversary of the Kick Six has given us plenty of time to reflect on the play’s immovable place in the annals of college football history, let alone the rich chapters on the Iron Bowl.

It’s the rivalry’s greatest play, and it began haunting Alabama fans for the rest of their lives in real time, almost as soon as the path cleared down the sideline for Chris Davis.

But when you remove the orange-and-blue-colored glasses and consider all the good fortune enjoyed by the Crimson Tide in the decade since, you’ll notice it’s aged like milk.

Did it absolutely suck for Tide fans in the moment? Yes.

Do they still wince at the thought of it or during one of the million times CBS or any network has aired the replay any chance they get? Sure.

Then the moment passes and you think about the big picture. The championships, the postseason awards, the Iron Bowls, the unmitigated college football riches zero other fan bases can even attempt to claim.

Below are seven reasons Alabama fans have breathed easy since a play they thought would ruin their lives.

Auburn blew it versus Florida State

The Tigers won the battle of the Iron Bowl — and they crushed Missouri in the subsequent SEC title game — but they lost the big one. Of course, most Alabama fans would insist Auburn considers the annual rivalry game the big one, whereas the Tide faithful keep their eye on the larger prize of a national championship. With glee, the Tigers ruined the 2-time defending champs’ shot at a rare three-peat, costing them a much-desired shot at Jameis and Jimbo. And a second title in four years appeared in the bag until the final minute of play in the BCS title game, when Heisman-winner found brawny receiver Kelvin Benjamin over the top for a go-ahead score to rip the trophy from the Tigers’ clutches. While the Kick Six burned the backs of their eyelids every time they shut their eyes trying to forget it, Alabama fans can always take solace in knowing the Tigers couldn’t get the job done, rendering the play a rivalry game one-off.

Alabama has won 3 national titles since

The Tide may have lost its shot at three straight, but little did they know they were already halfway to six national championship victories under Nick Saban. Nothing exorcises Iron Bowl demons like hardware that anoints you as the best team in the country. In fact, Alabama fans would probably endure one Kick Six per season if it meant they’d win the whole thing that same season. Sans historic runback, it did kind of happen. Remember when the Iron Bowl didn’t even matter in 2017? The Tigers defeated an offensively struggling Tide team who snuck into the College Football Playoff anyway only to beat Georgia in legendary fashion. (But we’ll get to that…) The point is, winning cures all — even the Kick Six.

3 Heisman winners

Bama never had a player win the Heisman Trophy until Mark Ingram did it in 2009. A common Alabama fan refrain: “Take the Heisman. We’ll take the national championship.” That is, until they became perennial contenders for the prize for college football’s best player. And since that night in 2013 (when, if that ball had sailed through the uprights instead, AJ McCarron might have stolen enough votes for the school’s second win), The Tide has had three more winners: Running back Derrick Henry in 2015, wide receiver DeVonta Smith in 2020, and quarterback Bryce Young in 2021.

6 SEC championships

The Kick Six became a battle for the SEC West and eventually a spot in the BCS title game, with Auburn smacking Missouri in Atlanta. Alabama likely does the same, but we’ll never know. But since that fateful night, the Tide has won the conference championship six times. Six. Two teams in the entire league have won that many SEC title games total (and just seven teams have won at least six conference titles in league history). Bama has that many in just 10 seasons. Number of Auburn SEC titles since 2013? Zero. (Same number of western division titles in that span, too.)

7 playoff appearances

The College Football Playoff came into existence in 2014, with the Tide securing the inaugural top seed and missing just two of the first nine. So yeah, Alabama has made the playoff 78 percent of the time. That’s absurd, but it just reflects the dominance of the Nick Saban era in Tuscaloosa. The recruiting machine hasn’t slowed a bit, keeping the Tide competitive at the highest level for a full decade. Honestly, it’s weird when Alabama doesn’t make the playoff. Auburn has yet to make the CFP top four. Maybe one day!

Alabama owns Auburn

Since losing on Nov. 30, 2013, Alabama’s record is 124-14. Auburn’s is 74-53. That’s exactly 50 more wins the Tide has than its in-state rivals. Bama has won seven of the last nine Iron Bowls, and Auburn fired Gus Malzahn, the man responsible for its last three wins in the rivalry (and probably the best coach in the country at beating Nick Saban teams). The Tigers are also paying more than $40 million in head coaches’ buyouts. Remember, they’re on their third head coach since that play, not even counting interim hires.

A better play that meant more than the Kick Six

As soon as Chris Davis broke the plane of the end zone, the sports world knew it had just seen arguably the greatest play in college football history, at least one rivaling the band on the field in Cal-Stanford, Vince Young’s Rose Bowl heroics, or even Alabama’s goal-line stand against Penn State. It even won an ESPY. We’d never seen anything like it, with those stakes in that rivalry. But a walk-off bomb touchdown pass in overtime to win a national title game, from one true freshman to another? That’s better. It just is. One play won a regular season game. The other won a championship. Case closed. But it was a good run!