"[H]is father taught him that hard work, integrity, trust and respect are the keys to success in football - and in life."

That's funny considering he lied to everyone in Miami about his intentions. It sounds like he "discovered" his daddy's lessons after he found out he couldn't hack it in the pros. I don't think Bama will come back until they fire that idiot Mal Moore and hire an a AD with at least 2 cents worth of brains.

bb

I may write a column about this. It's somehow OK to call a football coach a liar who didn't want to say anything about a move while he was in the middle of a season with another team, but none of these corporate news organizations around here will call George Bush a liar?

Now that's bullshit.

Saban may be an asshole to the media, and that will come out in time. But for now, I'll give a football coach the benefit of the doubt.

The president, on the other hand, needs to be held accountable for his lies. It matters far more than football...

What a difference in personality from Mike Shula to Nick Saban, from a coach that admittedely was "on the job training" as a head coach to a professional, polished coach that knows what he wants to do and how to do it. Coach Saban proved to be well worth the wait as he briefly summed up his aims and goals for the Crimson Tide.

He was very charismatic and made me want to go "strap on the pads" and block somebody, lol.

Seriously, I see no way for this man not to be successful at the Capstone.

All I say is "ROLL TIDE ROLL"!!!

DrStanCody

He still lied. There are ways to do it without directly lying. It's not just lying to the media, and by extension the public, either. He also lied to Huizenga and the Dolphin players.

I don't give a crap about Huizenga, but here Saban is touting his ethics and he flat-out lied to the public, to his boss and to his employees. Let's face it, for most Alabamians the head coach of Bama and/or Auburn is a more important position then the governor.

For that obscene salary he's getting from a public institution, he should be held to the same standard.

Personally I don't care if Alabama, Auburn or any other team from the SEC, Big 10, ACC or any other "major" conference wins another game for the rest of this century. I'm sick of all the crap that goes with football in this country. I wish Florida and Ohio State could tie in the bullshit "National Championship" game. Set up a real playoff just like in every other sport and then I might actually give a rat's ass.

As I get older, I find that I don't have four-plus hours to sit on my ass and watch a bunch of under-educated, over-pampered boys run around a football field. In fact I wish I had all those hours I've spent watching them back so I could do something constructive with them.

That said, I'll probably watch the "National Championship" game because it's the only one in town (in D.C.), and I have a bunch of friends here who are Ohio State fans. At the same time, if Ohio State wins, then I'll have to put up with their "bragging rights" for a at least a year. I think, I'd rather see them in misery. I think the Germans call that schadenfreude. Then, again, I'd have to put up with the Florida fans and their stupid Gator talk.

Hence, my desire for a tie, which I think is impossible under the current rules.

The best "football" on TV is "Friday Night Lights," and it only takes an hour.

Ask the Ranelli's folk if they still have the veggie sub. Makes my mouth water.

bb

Ah, maybe you are right. And maybe the guy's an asshole. And maybe he won't win and will retire to Deliverance territory with his $32 million in four years.

I don't care about a lot of things these days, but I do wish a few institutions in our society would do SOMETHING right. If Saban can return the UA program around and win some games, at least that would be something that works, something that I have a personal connection to with two degrees from UA.

What I want to see is a national government that works and provides health care for its citizens. And if you are going to bash what football coaches make, what about corporate executives?

The guy who ran Home Depot into the ground got paid $210 million just to go away. Now that's fucking obscene.

Executive compensation is another issue entirely. I think that's obscene, too, and not just for Home Depot. I also think Bush should spend some time in jail.

But that's not the story you posted. You posted a story about Saban, not about Nadelli or Bush. Hypocrisy in public life deserves to be skewered, whether its at a major university football program, a corporation or the government.

bb

I don't think its an entirely different issue at all. I think its part of the same story. And the story in America is, the people at the top are making more and more money and the people at the bottom are making less and less. (See my coverage of John Edwards for president).

Football, even at the university level these days, is basically a corporate enterprise. Notice how UA recently sued an artist in federal court to try and squeeze every dime out of its licensing program.

In Bush's world, and in the absence of state and federal support for education in recent years, universities have "gone corporate" by lowering standards, raising tuition and devaluing a degree - making it into a piece of paper available to anyone with the money to pay.

At a place like Alabama, a winning football program is not just about sports. It's about money, even down to the number of hounds tooth hats they sell at the campus bookstore and the amount of Budweiser sold at the local bars on the strip - not to mention the taxes on all those goods.

My point is that politicians and corporate presidents at companies such as Home Depot get away with lying and making more and more money and the media squeals not a whimper.

But in the case of a football coach - who in my opinion didn't lie at all, just dodged the question like any politician in America asked whether he's running in the next election or not - the media goes crazy and calls the guy a liar in print and on the air.

And in this case, you have the national media piling on Alabama in a way they would not do at, say, Notre Dame.

And here's another part of it. Paul Finebaum has made a name for himself in this state for being a critic of football programs and coaches for the most part. What makes his columns better than most around here is that he knows how to turn a cliche on its head and he weaves political references into his sports columns, a bit like Hunter Thompson only in a "family friendly" way that works in the local newspapers.

But there is not a single newspaper in this state or any other in the entire American South that would hire a political columnist who would be as tough and critical on politicians - or corporate executives.

And hey, even Finebaum is praising Alabama's choice of Saban, so that has to count for something in the PR department.

The good old boy network thinks they've scored a touchdown with Saban. The only way to test that theory is to see what happens on the field and off over the next four years. So I will be fair to the guy and wait and see.

My gut tells me he will have some success, and far more than the past four hires, maybe in part because he doesn't take any shit from dumbass sports reporters who think they are supposed to cover sports like we should be covering politics.

Hell, if I had known 25 years ago that the only department in the news room allowed to call someone a liar was the sports department, I may have gone into sports reporting myself. Its a pussy enterprise and none of them are ethical anyway and they all take the swag and always have.

Now where is the toughness in covering politics? That's what I want to see...

You know that's not true. How do you know what they're doing? You read about it. How did you know how much Nardelli was making? You read it or heard it from the media.

Forbes does a story on compensation every year. It's one of their biggest issues. The Wall Street Journal covers it extensively. Not a week goes by that they don't write about it. Surprisingly the WSJ is often critical of it. Usually when the company is doing poorly.

The NYT has also done stories about it. It wasn't too long ago I read a story in The Times about the disparity between the CEOs and the workers. NPR covers it extensively as does Marketplace.

The Hollywood Reporter and Variety often publish stories about whether Redstone, Murdoch, etc. are worth it.

BTW Saban flat-out lied. He said he had no intention of leaving Miami. Then he left.

After all these years, you've finally gone soft and rolled over like a puppy for the good-old Crimson Tide. I'd bet you a Yuengling for an O'Doules that 'Bama won't beat Auburn this year, but that would make me pull for Auburn, a school and place I truly despise.

Like I said. I don't really care. It was just something to bust on.

No, I don't read about it in the Birmingham News, or the Decatur Daily, or the Blount County reporter. It's not just what they are making, but that they are BAD for making it.

An objective AP story saying Nardelli got a $210 million retirement package is not the same thing as a sports commentator saying Saban "lied" and that he is going to make $32 million over eight years - with all kinds of innuendo that somehow that is a bad thing.

I don't care what the Wall Street Journal reports. It's not free online. And neither does anyone else in Alabama, because they can't read on that level and couldn't afford the price of a subscription if they did.

I'm talking about the LOCAL mainstream media on that part of the argument. The outfit that ran a column calling Saban a liar, linked in my earlier post, was freaking ESPN, which is not even a news organization at all but a sports TV network. Who cares what they think anyway?

And I'll take your Yuengling bet on the Auburn game, just for the fun of it. Will you take my Yuengling bet on John Edwards?