This is an opinion column.

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It felt a little like game day in Tuscaloosa on Thursday when High Noon, White Claw and Coors Light in Cut Off Sleeves walked up to 13th Street and Hackberry Lane.

It was around 6 p.m. and a handful of people had figured out that the Presidential motorcade wasn’t going through the front of Coleman Coliseum, but around the back.

Coors Light in Cut Off Sleeves took a pull from his beer. There were police officers and Secret Service agents surrounding the intersection, but no one seemed to care about the open containers. Everyone knew the game-day score. It was a party and the kids were meant to have a good time.

White Claw wanted to know if she could run back and grab a full bevie. Would there be enough time before the President arrived? Rookie mistake, kiddo. That’s why they make coolers.

“Oh my God, it’s Trump,” said one student when the President’s fortified Cadillac rolled through more than an hour later.

Plenty of people around the country and world are less than pleased with President Donald Trump after his first 100 days in office, but not here at the University of Alabama. This campus loves him, and Trump came here to have his ego stroked by the football coach everyone loves even more.

Not current coach What’s His Name either. Trump wanted Saban, and Alabama delivered Nick on a platter.

Trump invited himself to Tuscaloosa for spring graduation. Smart move. He wanted the university to help boost his image. Like old times, the University of Alabama was a prop for the populist politician with the divisive agenda.

Alabama Gov. George Wallace stood outside of an auditorium here at the University of Alabama. That was 1963, and it was all for show. This time, the schoolhouse welcomed Wallace’s political progeny inside the building.

What better place to play games with American education than Coleman Coliseum — President Donald J. Trump, a Yankee on the Crimson Tide’s court.

History doesn’t repeat itself, said Mark Twain, but it does rhyme.

And in more ways than one.

When it comes to American discourse, Samuel Langhorne Clemens would appreciate this subversive new age of digital fabrication. After all, this country’s greatest writer began his career as a reporter conjuring up fake news.

Don’t believe what you see. Don’t trust what you read. And, maybe most importantly of all, don’t leave home without your papers.

Tyrant to some, treasure for others, President Trump visited Tuscaloosa for a photo op billed by the university as “a special commencement event.” As a reporter, I went to cover the news from tusk to dusk. As a veteran reporter of many years, I decided very quickly that the best place to get the job done correctly, and to appreciate the vast depths of our American Dream, was the dark and righteous collection of dive bars a few blocks down the street.

Saban might call that an audible. The Bear might say The Strip called me home.

Three years sober, I suddenly needed a drink.

For America.

For the graduates.

For Saban and the Bear, too.

The bars on The Strip have heard many stories and seen many things. They have celebrated national championships and toasted graduations. The search for truth, since the beginning of recorded time, has always started with a heavy pour and a look to the future.

Coors Light in Cut Off Sleeves gets it.

Of all the students and graduates I spoke to on Thursday, I’ll always remember one. It was a brief conversation, but I’ll never forget it.

The student’s name was Henry Gray, and I was happy to meet him. He wore a suit under his graduation robe to Trump’s big event.

Gray is originally from New Orleans, and his tie was decorated with fleurs-de-lis. We talked on the street. Gray is the kind of guy who is kind enough to stop and talk to a stranger at an intersection even after it’s safe to walk across the road.

What’s the mood like on campus?

“Exciting and hopeful,” he said. “Especially with Saban here.”

If only we could convince him to come back and coach.

Gray majored in finance, and he will always be able to tell people that he was at Alabama when Saban decided to retire and Trump decided to speak.

We talked only for a moment, Gray and I, but during that brief exchange I came to understand that he would be a future leader of America.

Gray’s not going to Wall Street immediately after graduation. No, he is joining the Marines.

I thanked him for his service and wished him well. It was time for Gray to cross the street, figuratively but metaphorically, too. He was off to hear from the Commander in Chief.

BE HEARD

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Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the book “We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban’s Ultimate Team.”