Gainesville made Joakim Noah feel like Mick Jagger for a reason.
And now, ESPN has recognized that reason.
Gainesville has been named one of 20 finalists for ESPN's TitleTown as the 21 team national championships, three Heisman trophies and 174 Southeastern Conference titles in UF history have been noticed.
It's the atmosphere and insane nature of Gator fans that have been noted by the committee - and certainly by the athletes.
"The week after I won that championship, I felt like Bon Jovi," Noah said. "I was like Mick Jagger for a week. How many people can say that?"
According to ESPN, only citizens of 19 other cities. The network will be visiting each town sometime in July, and will be here on July 10. ESPN is urging fans to come out and attend the taping, which will start at 1:30 p.m. at the North Endzone of The Swamp. UF alum and ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews will interview Heisman-winner Tim Tebow.
"It's not just about numbers of titles or sizes of towns," ESPN senior coordinating producer Glenn Jacobs said. "It's the special stories and traditions that really ring true. Everyone knows The Swamp. That means something to people. Some of these small towns live and breathe sports. They have footballs put in the cribs of their babies. That isn't represented just by size."
If you go into almost any Gator store, you can see the onesies and baby bibs that prove Jacobs' point.
Also nominated for TitleTown are major metropolitan areas Boston, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Detroit. Joining Gainesville in the college and small town arena will be Green Bay, Wis.; Louisville, Ky.; Knoxville Tenn.; Williamsport, Pa.; Chapel Hill, N.C.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; Valdosta, Ga.; Massillo, Ohio; Parkersburg, W.Va.; Palo Alto, Calif.; Lawrence, Kan. and, yes, even Columbus, Ohio.
"We came there and we have all the athletes and all of them have the best times of their lives," Noah said. "I have so much love for Gainesville."
Apparently some might've almost had too much.
"When we first got there, Corey Brewer said if we win a championship he'd run around there naked," Noah said.
Brewer never went through with the act, Noah said, but the thought can still showcase the amount of passion Gators have for their town.
That's something that will be shown on national TV now.
"It's really learning about these places and getting to present the stories that people may not be familiar with," Jacobs said. "Really show why fans connect to these teams and what makes these cities so great."
The idea for TitleTown started about a year and a half ago from one of ESPN's feature producers. From there, they wanted to show the borderline-religious following that many citizens and fans of the town develop with the team and its athletes. Whether it's coming up with the latest Tim Tebow-ism (Tim Tebow Can Believe It's Not Butter is the quarterback's favorite) or almost developing laryngitis at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, the reasoning for that obsession is something ESPN hopes will come across.
"It's not just a stadium, it's The Swamp," Jacobs said. "It's a name that resonates. Everyone knows what you're talking about."
This feature will begin showing on ESPN on Friday and will run through July 23. After that, it's up to the fans. Online voting will be open from July 24-26, and the winner will be announced July 27 on SportsCenter.
It won't be easy to compete with the New York's and Boston's, especially given the Boston area's recent success, but Jacobs and his team knew Gainesville was a contender from the start.
"When we were kicking around cities we knew [Gainesville] was a city that had a chance to be on a list," he said. "Hopefully the fans in Gainesville come out and show that spirit that we expect."
