Will The Real Nick Saban Please Stand Up?

By Davies Callender

Now more than any other time that I can remember, we hear our own internal criticisms that the "fabric" of our society is in pieces. Our individual morals and societal mores are rapidly changing and not for the better. As art is a reflection of our cultural intent, sports are the same manifestation in action. Sportsmanship should extend emotion far beyond the positive, disciplined athlete and manifest the same constructive behavior in its fans. This is why I became a college football fan. As a young man I recall seeing and desiring to be a part of the best that the game had to offer; first as a player then later as an enthusiast.

Boy how things have changed. The sport is being challenged by the money, boosters, coaches, media and most of all, the fans. The 2011 season was the most shocking and disgusting display of mayhem yet. From the firings of Coach Paterno and Jim Tressle to the Sandusky scandal, there has never been a greater feeding frenzy for the shock jock sports radio hosts and the lunatic fringe callers that spew their venomous speech. Nowhere greater than the state of Alabama is the lunacy at fever pitch and no other fan base than the University of Alabama’s can match the vermin that infests college football.

In the past, college football had leaders in their coaches, today’s coaches are demagogues. Let’s attempt to grasp the weekly paycheck of one particular coach; Nick Saban. His "take home" is around $80,769.23 per week; give or take a few thousand dollars. That’s a lot of coin just to blow a whistle. But it’s not enough for him to stand up and tell his fans to shut up, don’t poison trees, don’t make false recordings of fake meetings and if that’s not enough please don’t ear rape a boy while wearing "my " team’s jersey.

Mr. Saban, when will the outrages, that you so eloquently belittle reporters with, be directed at the Scott Moores, the Danny Sheridans the Harvey Updykes and the Brian Downings? Like it or not, these individuals represent you Mr. Saban, they represent your players, they represent your recruits and they represent the University that pays your salary.

You are on top of the world coach. You held up that crystal ball for the entire world to see. That makes the University of Alabama the epicenter of college football. However, the actions of your fans bring all of college football closer to an event horizon. Should you continue in your apathetic attitude towards the actions of your fan base, I believe you will be part of a few that will take college football past the event horizon and into the darkness of a singularity.