If you go see the Tide inside Bryant-Denny, or any football team in any stadium, you literally share that experience with 100,000 total strangers. But in an intimate setting like your living room, it might feel a little different. And yet, that’s what makes the mutual love for college football so unique.

During Alabama’s desperate fourth quarter drive in Jordan-Hare Stadium in Saturday night’s incredible Iron Bowl, Chris and Melissa Roberts’ dog barked as it heard a knock at the door.

Of all times, they had a package delivery. Chris, a journalism professor at the University of Alabama, opened the door to hear the Crimson Tide Sports Network broadcast blaring from the UPS driver’s car outside their home in Tuscaloosa as he rummaged through a pile of packages.

With just a few inches to gain and keep the drive alive with just 2:15 left in the final period, Chris asked the delivery driver if he’d like to watch the rest of the game inside his home instead of listen on the radio. “I say, ‘Hey, it’s 4th-and-1, do you want to come in and watch it?’” Chris told AL.com. “And he says, ‘Sure.’ So he comes in and sits in my chair, and we watch the rest of the game together.

Roydell Williams gained three yards for a first down. But after a bad snap and a penalty, Alabama faced a seemingly impossible 4th-and-goal from Auburn’s 31-yard line before Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe heaved a prayer to the back left corner of the end zone where wide receiver Isaiah Bond came down with the go-ahead touchdown. Improbably, Bama beat Auburn 27-24 in an Iron Bowl instant classic. And the strangers celebrated in the Roberts’ living room.

“I don’t know if my wife has ever hugged a man whose last name she didn’t know in my house,” Chris said.

Of course, he documented the moment on X, formerly Twitter, writing, “The UPS man dropped off a package and saw The Crimson Tide deliver a miracle. #RollTide”

His wife Melissa loved it. “When Chris said, ‘We’ve got company. He’s coming to watch the game,’ I was like ‘Absolutely he should come in and watch the game.’ I said, ‘Maybe you’ll bring us good luck,’” Melissa said. “And so when we scored the touchdown, that’s why I hugged him. He was holding his hand up for a high-five, and I was like, ‘Oh no, you’re our good luck, I’ve got to have a hug.’ I was just thrilled Chris thought to do that.”

They only caught the driver’s first name. Chris said it appeared he had a long shift ahead of him given the number of packages he rummaged through in the back seat and trunk before finding that house’s.

But he stuck around for about 15 minutes to watch the Tide roll inside Jordan-Hare Stadium, which felt like par for the course for Alabama fans who so often share football moments with people they don’t actually know in the stadium stands, in a tailgate tent or wherever else you happen to catch a game. “I don’t see it as being that unusual,” Melissa said.

“This is what Alabama people do,” Chris said. “There ought to be a law in Tuscaloosa that everything stops when a game is on, particularly when it’s the Iron Bowl. It just seemed like the natural thing to do, to invite someone into your house when it’s a fourth quarter, last-minute drive and Alabama trails by four.

“My son gave him a high-five, I shook his hand, my wife hugged him, and he was out the door to deliver packages.”

Melissa said he stayed until the end of the game, as Tide defensive back Terrion Arnold intercepted Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne’s final pass and ran out the final ticks of the clock. “Once we scored, and we were all in shock, he had to go,” she said. “It was just kind of normal.”

He still had work to do, after all. But in Tuscaloosa, on Iron Bowl night the world stops — as do deliveries, if temporarily.

“There are probably 30 people in Tuscaloosa who will get their packages a little bit later,” Chris said, “but will not care less about it.”