It's no secret to anyone that cares about college football, that things are starting to get difficult for Alabama in the usually calm, comfortable and warm waters of the media. A few shots have crossed the bow and ripples are rocking the boat. While Alabama media members work hard to steady the boat, hand out life rafts and calm the Crimson masses, NONE of them are asking where the shots came from. Nobody is asking the why's, the who's, the how come's or even if it could happen again, or if there had been others. They'd rather shelter the weak minded and hope for calm.
This is in direct conflict to the actions taken when shots were fired at Auburn University over the past few years. Maybe shots weren't the right word. They were bombs. Big ones. They seemed to be coming from anyone and from every direction. So, did the Alabama media members grab buckets, or work to bilge pump water from the sinking ship? Absolutely not. In fact, most media members in the state took it up on themselves to jump up and down and throw their weight around in an effort to make things as difficult as possible.
THAT is why Auburn fans have issues. THAT is why, Alabama media folks, YOU take so much direct heat from Twitter, message boards and column comment sections when writing your "Does the NCAA really have the stomach to..." type scribbles. It's a direct slap in the face to those that deserve to hear the same questions asked, when troublesome accusations are delivered at your front door.
Last week, when the news broke that an Alabama Assistant Strength & Conditioning coach was placed on administrative leave, the narrative of most Alabama media was to go out and find any "expert" they could to explain that the issue for the student athlete was not a big deal. That's awfully convenient, but in the end, it will have little to do with what happens to Alabama collectively, if the right questions are asked, and the universities recruiting practices are called to question.
To the flip side of this. This last weekend, I worked the Dix story pretty hard on my Twitter account (@AuburnChopper). People cared about the subject, and so did I. News kept coming out, and I kept putting it out as well. Rand Getlin, a Yahoo Reporter that co-wrote the story with Charles Robinson on DJ Fluker's recent issues, even got into the act later that day when he posted pics of HaHa Clinton-Dix's 2012 Dodge Charger, complete with custom paint job, personalized number appointments on the quarter panels, as well as on the wheel hubs. A current model year (when this happened), custom painted Charger? Anyway you slice it, it's a vehicle that costs about $35-$50 GRAND with all accessories, paint and stereo equipment. To be desperately hunting down a "less than" $500 dollar loan from a coach? If you don't think that stinks, or Alabama media should be hounding Nick Saban for SOME SORT of reasonable answer, other than "It's an internal matter", is losing their mind.
So, why keep posting about it? Why keep asking the questions? Because they need to be asked. Because not only do I know what Auburn went through, I lived it. I watched a military career go down the tubes from the wrong questions being asked. I watched a military career get scrubbed because regardless of facts, the subject matter made me more guilty than the substance of any truth or fact pertaining to me specifically.
When I've asked the questions about Alabama, it's recruiting practices and the manner in which it happens, it's because I WANT TO KNOW THE ANSWERS. They're questions. I DO NOT know whether or not ANY OF IT happened. What I DO KNOW is that Alabama media members do NOT seem to want to know if any of it is true or now. None of them. THAT is not fair to Alabama, Auburn, college football, or the integrity of the game. If you don't care to answer the questions, then quit celebrating the grand traditions that go along with it, because you do NOT care, as shown by your inactivity.
For the first two years of my military stint at Maxwell AFB in the mid-90's, I was a model airman. Airman of the Quarter for one of the larger squadrons on base TWICE. I was on honor guard and folded flags that honored the fallen, or the deserved few that served our country. I was on several committees that determined different lifestyle improvements for airman peers on base. I was involved. I was proud. I was looked up to.
It all came crashing down in less than three months for nothing. First I was accused of having "weapons in the dormitory". This was untrue. I had a display knife, a collectible, that was kept by dorm management, and was given back to me the week of Christmas holiday to take home to Georgia while on leave. After a surprise inspection, the knife, which I had grabbed from management the morning I was leaving was found on my bed, and I was hauled to police HQ for questioning. The accusation was eventually dropped, but not before much explaining, many meetings with my superiors and the squadron commander.
I was then accused of racism. SOMEONE (not me) on the FLOOR of my dormitory, yelled an inappropriate racial term late on a Saturday night. I had several folks over to my room, as we were watching a pay-per-view fight. Someone from outside the room, THOUGHT it came from my room, where everyone was gathered. It started a three week investigation, again, that was ultimately proven unfounded, and no charges, were ever filed, but now, with the weapons charge and this racial issue, I was being questioned about everything.
I was accused next of a "hit and run". After completing an exercise early in the day, I left for lunch, evidently not knowing that the back end of my car had bumped the bumper of the car behind me. Several folks saw it happen, but just let me know when I got back. I went to the car's owner, who I was friends with, and I gave her the necessary money to fix it. It was no big deal to either of us. However, at the time, in the state of Alabama, she was required to have an "accident sticker" given to her by authorities showing the "accident" had been documented for insurance purposes. While obtaining this sticker, my friend told the base police that I had left, not knowing I hit the car. BOOM... Hit and Run charge. Yes, even THAT was eventually scrubbed from my record, but pair that with a weapons charge and racial issues? The game of telephone on my past record had begun. There was no repairing it and no stopping it.
For the last two years I was not allowed to join any new committees, and while I STILL managed to leave service with an Honorable Discharge, I had already been disqualified from re-enlistment due to prior derogatory files in my record pertaining to those THREE issues of which I wasn't even convicted of, or proven to have had anything to do with.
THAT still bugs me to this day. I've been fortunate enough, that the same drive and determination that made me successful my first few years there, drove me to complete school and enjoy a good career in what I do.
It ALSO is directly responsible for the way I have to question everything. It's why I question those that seem to SO INTENTLY ignore those that deserve to have questions asked, and why I defend those that have been so wrongfully accused. It's just a coincidence that I happen to be wrapped up in the fanship rivalry that is the Iron Bowl Rivalry.
War Eagle, and never stop questioning.... Ever.
Monday, October 7, 2013
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Ah Yes, The Poor Amateur Athlete
When @CharlesRobinson's Yahoo article detailing (and I mean DETAILING) the payments and other transgressions by several SEC players came out today, it was almost immediately followed by a piece from @DanWetzel.
I respect both of their work. However, there are agendas being served today, and this Bama scandal is bringing it to light.
First. ESPN's top, and I mean TOP Football market, is Birmingham, AL. They have a game coming up this weekend that, if had it not been already taken by LSU vs. Bama Game One a few years ago, would have been their "Game of the Century (but really only for this year...eh hem...).
When the news of Auburn's Jovon Robinson's grade change hit the news, ESPN all but broke into regular programing, and flung the fifteen minute flashing BREAKING NEWS ticker out. In the end, it was revealed that not only had Auburn not done anything wrong, they were in FACT, the ones that brought the grade issue up to the High School that had submitted the changed grade. Jovon Robinson (even though it was never established he had anything to do with it), was shown the door.
Today? Nothing. A tweet. A blip on their app. ON ESPN? The CHANNEL? THE "WORLDWIDE LEADER IN SPORTS"???? Notta. Nothing (as of 9:06pm as I type this EST).
The excuse? There is none. However, one could ask, or come to realize they're in deep now with the SEC, have lost their journalistic cred and are hoping nobody notices? Plausible actually. As the hours pass?
Second. Amateur status and Wetzel's reasonable gripe with the NCAA. This was the PERFECT time to get people's attention on his agenda versus the NCAA. I get it. I even agree. HOWEVER, cheating is cheating. When a university's boosters, or others with the university's best interests at heart offer help, financial aid or other enticements to recruits, it's usually in an effort to maintain, or gain a productive and needed player. The player might have come from a rich family or the poorest of poor, and while he, or she, is still an amateur, it's still good ol' fashioned cheating. You can't do it.
Usually, as these cases evolve, more comes out. Others start talking and the validity of things either start to solidify, or crumble under the eventual circumstances.
Do I know for sure that Bama will LOSE a National Title? Heck no. Do I know that if they've been proven to have played an ineligible player during that time, they'd be forced to give it up? Yup.
There are going to be a LOT of eyeballs on this one. This is huge money. This is major marketing, public relations nightmare scenarios afoot.
Ask yourself though, now that these collective, seemingly innocuous things make the T-Town Menswear LESS likely? ...Or More? What about Hot Wheelz? Dee Liner's Tweets about the #StruggleOverWit?
Ask yourself also... Is business owners getting tickets for breaks on furniture for players an issue with amateurs? I don't think so either.
Let's see how it shakes out.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Cash, Cash or Cash? Stop It
23"
24"
26"?!?!
Jordans. Nike. Under Armor. NFL Jerseys. Candy Apple Flake Metallic Custom Paint Jobs.
Ah yes, the sound of money. Yup. Money.
Too often in today's sports media, and it's legions of 45 year plus year olds and country club lifestyle types, far too few understand today's "money" when it comes to eighteen to twenty four year olds from varying backgrounds. When the next scandal involving a player, big or small erupts, cash is always what they're looking for. If the cash don't fit, they must acquit. Right?
Well, wait just a damn minute...
During the latest sports debacle involving Mr. College Football Everything, Johnny Manziel, Heisman winning QB for the Texas A&M Aggies, sports writer after sports writer have been tripping over each other making the point of whether or not Johnny Football took cash for his signatures. Is it THAT simple? Cash, or no cash? Really?
In today's day and age of paper trails and investigative skills, why on earth would some college players looking for handouts, demand cash? I mean, where are they going to put these large wads of Chicago knots? In a shoe box? In a closet back at home? Swiss Bank Accounts? Most kids that are talented enough to EARN the money in a few years or so anyway, don't give a damn about getting cash all the time directly. Help mom and pops? Sure, if you can find a way to be squeaky clean.
I'm not saying that some don't want "straight cash, homie", but what about OTHER things...
When kids that have gone forever with nothing are offered rides, rims, suits, paint jobs.... status... what is so hard to understand that cash isn't always going to be the first item up for bid, when it comes to the star heavy elite looking for a place to flash their talents for several years.
I do NOT know what Johnny Manziel drives. His parents have been independently verified of their wealth a dozen times over, and so questioning his material possessions is probably a shallow pool to dive in.
However, when a dozen or so kids, coming from verified poverty are driving current model year vehicles decked out in the nicest rims, paint jobs and always filled with gas... I'm talking the $100+ fill ups necessary to drive some of the most gas hungry luxury SUV's on the road today... Is it not worth asking... How? Why? If there's tickets? Who, or how are THOSE paid??
I've heard all the rebuttals... Pell Grants... Rich family... Rich Uncle... Money that isn't needed now for school, due to a scholarship... Really? I've seen what Pell Grant money will buy, and it sure as hell isn't a 2011 GMC Yukon in the current model year. It isn't enough to buy 22 inch rims to go on them. It is seriously short of adding a custom paint job. Rich Uncle? Maybe, but how many rich uncles are we talking here? 5? 10? Must be a bunch of them, cause there are a lot of late model hot rods on college campuses today. ...and lastly about that scholarship money. Buy a house? Invest it? If you actually HAVE that much? If that many kids are blowing that type of money on cars, their counselors ought to be shown the door, or investigated themselves. God help them when the REAL money comes in a few years down the road if successful.
Bottom line here? Quit pretending this is all about paper money. It's about the cash in the form of gifts, materials and status. It's a new game out there, and the people in charge of figuring it out are still chasing a dog, iron and little mustached man in a top hat past the Go square...
Just an opinion...
24"
26"?!?!
Jordans. Nike. Under Armor. NFL Jerseys. Candy Apple Flake Metallic Custom Paint Jobs.
Ah yes, the sound of money. Yup. Money.
Too often in today's sports media, and it's legions of 45 year plus year olds and country club lifestyle types, far too few understand today's "money" when it comes to eighteen to twenty four year olds from varying backgrounds. When the next scandal involving a player, big or small erupts, cash is always what they're looking for. If the cash don't fit, they must acquit. Right?
Well, wait just a damn minute...
During the latest sports debacle involving Mr. College Football Everything, Johnny Manziel, Heisman winning QB for the Texas A&M Aggies, sports writer after sports writer have been tripping over each other making the point of whether or not Johnny Football took cash for his signatures. Is it THAT simple? Cash, or no cash? Really?
In today's day and age of paper trails and investigative skills, why on earth would some college players looking for handouts, demand cash? I mean, where are they going to put these large wads of Chicago knots? In a shoe box? In a closet back at home? Swiss Bank Accounts? Most kids that are talented enough to EARN the money in a few years or so anyway, don't give a damn about getting cash all the time directly. Help mom and pops? Sure, if you can find a way to be squeaky clean.
I'm not saying that some don't want "straight cash, homie", but what about OTHER things...
When kids that have gone forever with nothing are offered rides, rims, suits, paint jobs.... status... what is so hard to understand that cash isn't always going to be the first item up for bid, when it comes to the star heavy elite looking for a place to flash their talents for several years.
I do NOT know what Johnny Manziel drives. His parents have been independently verified of their wealth a dozen times over, and so questioning his material possessions is probably a shallow pool to dive in.
However, when a dozen or so kids, coming from verified poverty are driving current model year vehicles decked out in the nicest rims, paint jobs and always filled with gas... I'm talking the $100+ fill ups necessary to drive some of the most gas hungry luxury SUV's on the road today... Is it not worth asking... How? Why? If there's tickets? Who, or how are THOSE paid??
I've heard all the rebuttals... Pell Grants... Rich family... Rich Uncle... Money that isn't needed now for school, due to a scholarship... Really? I've seen what Pell Grant money will buy, and it sure as hell isn't a 2011 GMC Yukon in the current model year. It isn't enough to buy 22 inch rims to go on them. It is seriously short of adding a custom paint job. Rich Uncle? Maybe, but how many rich uncles are we talking here? 5? 10? Must be a bunch of them, cause there are a lot of late model hot rods on college campuses today. ...and lastly about that scholarship money. Buy a house? Invest it? If you actually HAVE that much? If that many kids are blowing that type of money on cars, their counselors ought to be shown the door, or investigated themselves. God help them when the REAL money comes in a few years down the road if successful.
Bottom line here? Quit pretending this is all about paper money. It's about the cash in the form of gifts, materials and status. It's a new game out there, and the people in charge of figuring it out are still chasing a dog, iron and little mustached man in a top hat past the Go square...
Just an opinion...
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Quick Opinion: What Is A Rival Fan?
A few weeks ago, when the Dee Liner cash photos cropped up, Kevin Scarbinsky threw out a quick piece basically explaining that he didn't care about the Liner photo. His reasoning? Rival fans being rival fans. Fair? Unfair? It's an interesting reason to not look into it I guess, but forgive me for a second while I ask a simple question in response.
What IS a rival fan?
In this case, clearly Scarbs is saying Auburn fans are to blame for this latest social fumble in the Alabama football team's now increasingly ridiculous collection of social fumbles.
Yes, it's was Auburn fans that made Dee Liner, for weeks, tout his new found fortunes. It was those silly Aubs that forced Dee into that Burger King (THAT is just rumor...full disclosure here, y'all.) bathroom to flash his fan of cold hard cash. Right? Auburn fans, those meddling kids...and their dog too, forced T-Town Tom to take hundreds of pictures of himself with Bama players with shirts on/off, signing autographs, eating out together, handing expensive autograph pictures to customers, selling jerseys... Oh you know... All those things Auburn fans FORCE these guys to do...
Scarbinsky was quick to point out that a quick search of google, he found several Auburn players that had taken similar pics with cash. So true. However, none had gone out of their way, as Liner had, to ensure people knew his status as a Bama football player was behind his new fortunes, and of course, that the #StruggleOverWit.
Actually in a time over the last three years, when seemingly a message board post claiming an allegation against Auburn could instantly swing the national media into a frenzy, countless photos of boosters, piles of autographed jerseys at a booster's business, etc.. etc... etc..... went ignored. In a time were Auburn could bring a questionable transcript to a school's attention, suspend the player, dismiss him, and STILL be looked upon as an obvious culprit, nothing could EVER be going on unnoticed at Alabama. No, the most flimsy of stories have been asked about Auburn, yet NOTHING gets asked in relation to the ridiculousness seen in pictures emanating from T-Town Menswear, and other questionable locationZ.
So, again, it's the rival fans fault. Alabama and the amazing Two Hour Investigative Team of Tuscaloosa says that all is well at Alabama. So, Alabama said so. Alabama to the state media? It's the internet. If it came from Alabama saying "it's all cool, we checked it out, bro"? State media swoons, and writes the next great Saban love poem.
In the end, there is no direct accusation here. I do NOT know if there have been any wrong doings at T-Town Menswear. I don't know how, or under WHAT spectacular financing exists that allow full time student athletes to buy current model year GMC Yukons, tricked out in the finest of rims and accessories.... BUT... I also know the reason I DO NOT know, is because a full, REAL asking of all these questions, complete with FULL, REAL answers does not exist.
Why is it EVERY SINGLE TIME, these social fumbles happen on Twitter, Facebook and other places, ALL the pictures and questionable material is scrubbed from view. If so completely innocent, why does it always seem a call to "The Wolf" has been made, and "Monster Joe's Truck & Tow" has picked up another junker to smash?
If you think about it, the answer to "what is a rival fan", is simple. It's just about anyone that gives a damn about sports, a team, or the integrity of the game OUTSIDE your own program.
What IS a rival fan?
In this case, clearly Scarbs is saying Auburn fans are to blame for this latest social fumble in the Alabama football team's now increasingly ridiculous collection of social fumbles.
Yes, it's was Auburn fans that made Dee Liner, for weeks, tout his new found fortunes. It was those silly Aubs that forced Dee into that Burger King (THAT is just rumor...full disclosure here, y'all.) bathroom to flash his fan of cold hard cash. Right? Auburn fans, those meddling kids...and their dog too, forced T-Town Tom to take hundreds of pictures of himself with Bama players with shirts on/off, signing autographs, eating out together, handing expensive autograph pictures to customers, selling jerseys... Oh you know... All those things Auburn fans FORCE these guys to do...
Scarbinsky was quick to point out that a quick search of google, he found several Auburn players that had taken similar pics with cash. So true. However, none had gone out of their way, as Liner had, to ensure people knew his status as a Bama football player was behind his new fortunes, and of course, that the #StruggleOverWit.
Actually in a time over the last three years, when seemingly a message board post claiming an allegation against Auburn could instantly swing the national media into a frenzy, countless photos of boosters, piles of autographed jerseys at a booster's business, etc.. etc... etc..... went ignored. In a time were Auburn could bring a questionable transcript to a school's attention, suspend the player, dismiss him, and STILL be looked upon as an obvious culprit, nothing could EVER be going on unnoticed at Alabama. No, the most flimsy of stories have been asked about Auburn, yet NOTHING gets asked in relation to the ridiculousness seen in pictures emanating from T-Town Menswear, and other questionable locationZ.
So, again, it's the rival fans fault. Alabama and the amazing Two Hour Investigative Team of Tuscaloosa says that all is well at Alabama. So, Alabama said so. Alabama to the state media? It's the internet. If it came from Alabama saying "it's all cool, we checked it out, bro"? State media swoons, and writes the next great Saban love poem.
In the end, there is no direct accusation here. I do NOT know if there have been any wrong doings at T-Town Menswear. I don't know how, or under WHAT spectacular financing exists that allow full time student athletes to buy current model year GMC Yukons, tricked out in the finest of rims and accessories.... BUT... I also know the reason I DO NOT know, is because a full, REAL asking of all these questions, complete with FULL, REAL answers does not exist.
Why is it EVERY SINGLE TIME, these social fumbles happen on Twitter, Facebook and other places, ALL the pictures and questionable material is scrubbed from view. If so completely innocent, why does it always seem a call to "The Wolf" has been made, and "Monster Joe's Truck & Tow" has picked up another junker to smash?
If you think about it, the answer to "what is a rival fan", is simple. It's just about anyone that gives a damn about sports, a team, or the integrity of the game OUTSIDE your own program.
Monday, July 29, 2013
Stars, Busts & The Process
In rivalries today, especially one as heated as the Auburn vs. Alabama tilt, fans bashing another base for innuendo, witch hunts and trolling is to be expected. However, when the media dismisses everything said in the name of "it's just over zealous fans being just that, over zealous", things get missed. There are bigger stories that fall along solid trend lines that get ignored.
When Dee Liner posted a pic of himself with what looked to be several hundred to a thousand dollars in cash, while stating "#StruggleOverWit", it could be passed up as just another knuckle head kid posting an irresponsible picture of himself in a social environment hungry for the morsel he unwittingly provided. It very well could be an innocent, yet stupidly played ploy to look "hard" or to appear to be "ballin", but it falls along a trend of ridiculousness that has defined the Alabama Football team OFF the field.
NOBODY doubts the football prowess of Nick Saban recently. His success at Alabama has been nothing short of phenomenal. Lord knows, as much as many other SEC fans hate the man personally for whatever reasons, they respect what he's done. No matter how much they may loathe Alabama, they have NO problem getting on the "SEC's won eight BCS Titles" bandwagon, which Alabama alone claims three of the last four. Alabama's ascension to this place has been anything but the norm however. A team that was, for several years, plagued by probation, NCAA issues, poor play on the field and relegated to mid-tier SEC records for over a decade, the turn-around to what its become today was almost immediate, and unparalleled in modern college football history.
Why is that?
Nick Saban, while a good coach, was a mediocre coach at Michigan State that found the fountain of youth in SEC talent and clout at LSU, winning a National Championship there. However, outside the blanket of the SEC, he dipped his toe in the NFL and quickly realized it was more than he was equiped to deal with. For Nick Saban, there was no better place he could have ended up, than hungry, once proud, rich and powerful Alabama. They revered him in "God like" status, and hyped him into an almost too big to fail universe.
It first started with just getting better talent on the field. It didn't matter who, what background or how much of a problem they might be in class, or off the field, they just needed to up the level of play to start the ball rolling. Subsequently, while also clearing out some of the riff-raff left over from the years before via the process, Bama was plagued by arrests and off the field issues, but as predicted the level of play, limited suspensions, or questionable "ice cream" punishments, Nick kept those players on the field more than off. They won more ball-games, and the better recruits took notice. All they'd see on ESPN and outlets is 24-7 coverage of how the Tide was returning to their once lost Bear days of domination. ESPN, always hungry for the traditionals to drive ratings, pumped the country full of Bama love. They were rollin' baby.
Fast forward to what we know it 2013...
The Crimson Tide are at the top of college football. It drives many opposing bases crazy. How is it that they get all this talent? Is it just incredible luck? Is it incredibly great recruiting? Is it the constant drooling and inexplicably constant attention their evidently trillion dollar, golden laden bench press equipment filled weight room gets (I mean, I guess it is, it seems to just a huge ass weight room, but I digress...)?
It could simply be all those things. It could just be legit. However, how is it that NO OTHER football school, traditional, upcoming, or other team in the history of college football has been able to come close to this level of recruiting or continuous success? What is it about Tuscaloosa, AL that's SO far beyond what Southern California, the Pacific Northwest, the rest of the ENTIRE Southeast are NOT able to provide?
I'm not sure anyone knows. I'm sure the average Bama fan has their non-biased opinions, but...
What I DO know is, is that there seems to be an extreme level of differences between the lifestyle prominent Alabama players live, and those that don't reach their, sometimes inflated, potential. Players like Fluker, McCarron, Richardson, Ingram and several others drove Denalis, Cadillacs with the nicest rims from Hot Wheelz in Mobile, AL, or wear the finest tailored suits from T-Town's Menswear in Tuscaloosa, or have dinner with successful local business owners, like the ones that provide the rims and suits. OTHER players are beating up fellow students for candy bar money. They're selling cocaine, or riding out their last days as football team members, waiting for career ending injury medical waivers, whether the player thought it was warranted or not via the now infamous "Process".
Why is the mentor issue not seen by others outside of the Alabama universe? Players that are great, but possibly issue prone, are assigned a mentor. Fluker/Hot Wheelz guy for example... In a moment of idiocy, Fluker was known to direct message people on Twitter (including myself) to explain we just don't know the guy, and he'd do anything for anyone. Fluker even goes as far as to tell me how he's got pictures of the owner of Hot Wheelz with him and his family, and that "he really help with family problems". Fluker, a few days before the 2013 draft, even states on Twitter that he got paid while at Alabama. This coupled with all the other known issues should have sent a few journos to Tuscaloosa to ask a few questions, but it quickly gets scrubbed by most of the lazy media after a less than satisfactory "he was hacked" story from an agent that would lose his ass on Fluker if that story broke before a potential million dollar payday.
Fluker isn't the only one though. You have Calloway, who recently departed the Bama football team after it was revealed he'd utilized a stolen student's debit card to buy a candy bar in a dorm vending machine. Too bad Brent hadn't panned out, or maybe he would have been able to go to dinner with Tom Albetar, who took special interest in Trent Richardson. Albetar was seen in photos on Facebook taking Richardson to dinner at a Hibachi Grill restaurant, but that's, of course, only circumstance. It always is, right? While Richardson had Albetar, Calloway had business owners in Russelville, AL that made sure he was okay, and even made sure he was hidden away "for his own good" days before signing day, and only a day after flip-flopping on a commitment to Auburn.
Fact is, while media folks got bogged down tripping over each other to write the next angle on the Cam Newton saga that ended up turning up nothing against Auburn's 2010 BCS Championship Team, coaches, university or anyone associated with it (A Cam Newton that tooled around Auburn on a moped during is National Championship, Heisman winning campaign.), T-Town Tom racked up on hundreds of autographed jerseys, helmets and other memorabilia. Players earning their keep in T-Town ate well, drove the nicest cars and enjoyed all the spoils. While Auburn took exactly an hour to rid itself of four felons robbing a couple students in a trailer park, Bama's best players were driving their late model Camaros, Chargers and GMC SUV's 2-3 hours south to Mobile to have the best rims money could buy installed on their whips, some even getting custom paint jobs to go with them.
So, while cash is hard, if not impossible to trace, the trends and circumstances that drive fans to simply ask the questions is not hard, or impossible to trace.
Why would asking the questions be such a burden on those tasked, or employed to do so?
Maybe instead of Nick Saban asking if the Hurry Up No Huddle Offense is what football is becoming, he should ask if student athletes being treated to the spoils in Tuscaloosa is the what football has already become under his watch.
I thought that struggle, was part of the learning experience you get in college life. *shrug*
When Dee Liner posted a pic of himself with what looked to be several hundred to a thousand dollars in cash, while stating "#StruggleOverWit", it could be passed up as just another knuckle head kid posting an irresponsible picture of himself in a social environment hungry for the morsel he unwittingly provided. It very well could be an innocent, yet stupidly played ploy to look "hard" or to appear to be "ballin", but it falls along a trend of ridiculousness that has defined the Alabama Football team OFF the field.
NOBODY doubts the football prowess of Nick Saban recently. His success at Alabama has been nothing short of phenomenal. Lord knows, as much as many other SEC fans hate the man personally for whatever reasons, they respect what he's done. No matter how much they may loathe Alabama, they have NO problem getting on the "SEC's won eight BCS Titles" bandwagon, which Alabama alone claims three of the last four. Alabama's ascension to this place has been anything but the norm however. A team that was, for several years, plagued by probation, NCAA issues, poor play on the field and relegated to mid-tier SEC records for over a decade, the turn-around to what its become today was almost immediate, and unparalleled in modern college football history.
Why is that?
Nick Saban, while a good coach, was a mediocre coach at Michigan State that found the fountain of youth in SEC talent and clout at LSU, winning a National Championship there. However, outside the blanket of the SEC, he dipped his toe in the NFL and quickly realized it was more than he was equiped to deal with. For Nick Saban, there was no better place he could have ended up, than hungry, once proud, rich and powerful Alabama. They revered him in "God like" status, and hyped him into an almost too big to fail universe.
It first started with just getting better talent on the field. It didn't matter who, what background or how much of a problem they might be in class, or off the field, they just needed to up the level of play to start the ball rolling. Subsequently, while also clearing out some of the riff-raff left over from the years before via the process, Bama was plagued by arrests and off the field issues, but as predicted the level of play, limited suspensions, or questionable "ice cream" punishments, Nick kept those players on the field more than off. They won more ball-games, and the better recruits took notice. All they'd see on ESPN and outlets is 24-7 coverage of how the Tide was returning to their once lost Bear days of domination. ESPN, always hungry for the traditionals to drive ratings, pumped the country full of Bama love. They were rollin' baby.
Fast forward to what we know it 2013...
The Crimson Tide are at the top of college football. It drives many opposing bases crazy. How is it that they get all this talent? Is it just incredible luck? Is it incredibly great recruiting? Is it the constant drooling and inexplicably constant attention their evidently trillion dollar, golden laden bench press equipment filled weight room gets (I mean, I guess it is, it seems to just a huge ass weight room, but I digress...)?
It could simply be all those things. It could just be legit. However, how is it that NO OTHER football school, traditional, upcoming, or other team in the history of college football has been able to come close to this level of recruiting or continuous success? What is it about Tuscaloosa, AL that's SO far beyond what Southern California, the Pacific Northwest, the rest of the ENTIRE Southeast are NOT able to provide?
I'm not sure anyone knows. I'm sure the average Bama fan has their non-biased opinions, but...
What I DO know is, is that there seems to be an extreme level of differences between the lifestyle prominent Alabama players live, and those that don't reach their, sometimes inflated, potential. Players like Fluker, McCarron, Richardson, Ingram and several others drove Denalis, Cadillacs with the nicest rims from Hot Wheelz in Mobile, AL, or wear the finest tailored suits from T-Town's Menswear in Tuscaloosa, or have dinner with successful local business owners, like the ones that provide the rims and suits. OTHER players are beating up fellow students for candy bar money. They're selling cocaine, or riding out their last days as football team members, waiting for career ending injury medical waivers, whether the player thought it was warranted or not via the now infamous "Process".
Why is the mentor issue not seen by others outside of the Alabama universe? Players that are great, but possibly issue prone, are assigned a mentor. Fluker/Hot Wheelz guy for example... In a moment of idiocy, Fluker was known to direct message people on Twitter (including myself) to explain we just don't know the guy, and he'd do anything for anyone. Fluker even goes as far as to tell me how he's got pictures of the owner of Hot Wheelz with him and his family, and that "he really help with family problems". Fluker, a few days before the 2013 draft, even states on Twitter that he got paid while at Alabama. This coupled with all the other known issues should have sent a few journos to Tuscaloosa to ask a few questions, but it quickly gets scrubbed by most of the lazy media after a less than satisfactory "he was hacked" story from an agent that would lose his ass on Fluker if that story broke before a potential million dollar payday.
Fluker isn't the only one though. You have Calloway, who recently departed the Bama football team after it was revealed he'd utilized a stolen student's debit card to buy a candy bar in a dorm vending machine. Too bad Brent hadn't panned out, or maybe he would have been able to go to dinner with Tom Albetar, who took special interest in Trent Richardson. Albetar was seen in photos on Facebook taking Richardson to dinner at a Hibachi Grill restaurant, but that's, of course, only circumstance. It always is, right? While Richardson had Albetar, Calloway had business owners in Russelville, AL that made sure he was okay, and even made sure he was hidden away "for his own good" days before signing day, and only a day after flip-flopping on a commitment to Auburn.
Fact is, while media folks got bogged down tripping over each other to write the next angle on the Cam Newton saga that ended up turning up nothing against Auburn's 2010 BCS Championship Team, coaches, university or anyone associated with it (A Cam Newton that tooled around Auburn on a moped during is National Championship, Heisman winning campaign.), T-Town Tom racked up on hundreds of autographed jerseys, helmets and other memorabilia. Players earning their keep in T-Town ate well, drove the nicest cars and enjoyed all the spoils. While Auburn took exactly an hour to rid itself of four felons robbing a couple students in a trailer park, Bama's best players were driving their late model Camaros, Chargers and GMC SUV's 2-3 hours south to Mobile to have the best rims money could buy installed on their whips, some even getting custom paint jobs to go with them.
So, while cash is hard, if not impossible to trace, the trends and circumstances that drive fans to simply ask the questions is not hard, or impossible to trace.
Why would asking the questions be such a burden on those tasked, or employed to do so?
Maybe instead of Nick Saban asking if the Hurry Up No Huddle Offense is what football is becoming, he should ask if student athletes being treated to the spoils in Tuscaloosa is the what football has already become under his watch.
I thought that struggle, was part of the learning experience you get in college life. *shrug*
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