Nick Saban has earned a certain level of respect that most other college football coaches aren’t afforded.
Four national titles at Alabama and another at LSU will do that.
I get it.
But the media who gathered in Hoover, Alabama, last week for the spectacle known as SEC Media Days were obviously scared to ask the coach the hard questions.
Instead, Saban got softball after softball — just a day after everyone in the room raked Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen over the coals for the school’s light punishment of incoming freshman Jeffery Simmons.
Ole Miss’ Hugh Freeze was swamped Thursday with questions about the NCAA allegations against his program, and rightfully so.
But there was not one question for Saban about the latest arrests of Alabama players.
He got asked about tight-end depth and developing defensive linemen, while everyone failed to address the giant elephant in the room.
It wasn’t until Saban stepped off the podium and onto the SEC Network stage that he was challenged with a legitimate, tough question. That came from SEC pundit Paul Finebaum, who asked why there would be no suspensions for two players who were arrested and booked in Louisiana on drug and weapons charges, but who avoided prosecution when the district attorney declined to press forward with the case.
The thin-skinned Saban jumped hot immediately, but it was what followed off-air that showed his true colors.
When the network went to commercial, Saban went into a profanity-laced tirade against Finebaum, a national radio and TV host.
The most powerful and highest-paid coach in the nation doesn’t like to be questioned or criticized.
Don’t worry, Coach, your local media would never do such a thing.
Heck, if they question him too hard, they might be run out of town by those crazed fans over there.
The majority of the Alabama media who cover the Crimson Tide are a joke anyway. Any reporter who has ever sat next to one in a press box knows that.
They are the biggest “homers” you have ever seen. Some might as well be cheerleaders.
The point is Saban controls the media in Alabama, and very few will ever hold his feet to the fire.
The coach had a very interesting spin on what happened to Cam Robinson and Hootie Jones, both Louisiana guys who left the state to play for the rival Tide.
Hey, I am all for any coach defending his players, but there is a way to do it without suggesting they were the victims of a conspiracy by sore losers.
Kevin Scarbinsky, a columnist for al.com and an exception to most of the Bama media toadies, hit the nail on the head when he wrote “it’s incredibly irresponsible of a public figure who owns the bulliest pulpit in his profession to make a serious accusation against police officers by insinuation.”
Maybe while Saban was defending his players, though, he could have explained why two of his guys were sitting in a car in a public park after 2 a.m. with even a tiny amount of marijuana and at least one gun of which they were aware.
Hey, I understand that Saban, Freeze and Mullen work in a cut-throat conference where the only thing that matters is winning — but you have to be able to stand up to a little criticism.
Saban would rather just be the puppet master.
