Men of Great Character and Integrity (in Sports)…
January 3, 2007 | 3:14 PM
Pat Forde of ESPN has a phenomenal article on Nick Saban’s departure for Tuscaloosa. Among the highlights:
“Integrity” is out. “Character” is out. “Teacher” is out. “Leader of men” is out.
“Liar” is in.
They’re not going to tell the truth to us, but we can tell the truth about them. It’s this: They’ll say anything to get recruits on campus, and they’ll say anything to get media members off their backs when angling for a different job. And the panting attempts by school administrators, fans, other coaches and many media members to portray them as men of superior moral fiber needs to stop.
After his quick lambasting of basically all coaches (including former Bama coach Dennis Francione and current Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville), Forde tears into Alabama and Saban. This is my favorite part:
The real job description at most places isn’t terribly heavy on life lessons. It goes roughly like this: Must win, must win some more, must beat archrival, must recruit like a maniac, must put fannies in seats. The secondary clause: Must not get caught committing NCAA violations, must try to avoid a complete and obvious subversion of the university’s academic principles.
Winning games is why Alabama wanted Nick Saban, and winning games is why Nick Saban wanted to go back to college coaching. That’s as far as the “great fit” goes. You’ll probably hear a lot about how Saban loves college towns and college life and coaching young guys, but this is why he wanted to go back to campus: His record at LSU was 48-16, and his record at Miami was 15-17.
Don’t look a single step beyond that. Because if you do, you’ll see Alabama’s contribution to the higher education mission: a reported $32 million contract for a football coach who spent the last month-plus lying like a rug about having any interest in coming to their school.
Yet they won’t be able to introduce Nick Saban in Tuscaloosa simply as the best winner money can buy. The hyperbole will go far beyond that, until he is inevitably hailed as a “man of great character.”
I’ll simply hail him as the richest member of the Liar’s Club.
Posted in 
joe kennedy, 2008
yeah, and loosing is why bama fired shulla in the first place. lossing is also why spurier left the nfl to return to college ball a few years ago.
i was extremely peeved when dennis “abandionie” left bama in the middle of spring training a few years ago. it lacked integrity because he said he was staying and then left.
i’m not sure what to think about saban. yeah, he’ll probably improve the performance of the team, but i agree w/ the sections you quoted from this article: saban lacked integrity in how he handled the situation.
seems, however, that most coaches are playing this sort of game today. i’m glad the article mentions ole turby from auburn. he did the rigamero a few years ago, too.
there are few coaches that i really respect anymore. i think of penn state and georgia’s coaches as pretty respectable and men with character. but, that’s a rarity any more.
peace and coffee…
January 6th, 2007 at 12:22 PM