The Alabama football program is steeped in the tradition of tough players that came to play for a legend, were loyal to the school, and were passionate about playing for Alabama against all the traditional foes. There have been many Alabama players that played professionally, but only after 4 years of college, and numerous personal sacrifices for a cause they actually believed in, and that rose above the avarice of the world. It began in the Coach Stallings era, and is ending right before our eyes - never to been seen again. Coach Saban is filling the rosters with players with one goal, and one goal only - to play in the NFL. Their loyalty to any particular school goes only far enough to satisfy desires for playing time, TV coverage, and the ability of the head coach to ensure more NFL scout exposure. They will leave college for professional football at the first opportunity, with little regard to their education or commitment.
While this will lead to on-the-field short-term success and make the fans happy, it will slowly diminish the things that distinguish Alabama from programs like FSU, Miami, and USC, who exist only to facilitate the passing of ineligible players from high school to the pros at little or no cost to themselves. Alabama will join the ranks of these professional "farm teams" as factories for players instead of the institution that it has always been - a sculptor of young men loyal to a school and a cause larger than themselves. As long as Alabama wins, most fans don't care how or at what cost.
Yes. I will be as happy as everyone at the inevitable success that this change will produce. But, I will also be sad at the collateral, and conveniently ignored, affect on the tradition that is Alabama football. I will regret changing Alabama from a program where players play with broken legs to one that the Joe McKnight's of the world use selfishly to achieve worldly wealth. Call me naive or idealistic, but I have believed my whole life that Alabama stands for something personal - something greater than the pursuit of individual wealth or glory at a higher level. This recent success might be "just the beginning," but the cost of achieving that sustained success is the beginning of the end.
5 comments:
The Jurassic Period ended but the world didn't end with it. Few would argue that, politics and factions aside, the world we live in today is better suited for human habitation, perhaps one day even enabling us to evolve beyond what we've become -- and what we're used to being.
Alabama football is T-Rex -- King of our domain, the world of college football. The Crimson Tide of today is not the team of the 1960s and 70s no more than those teams were the same as the ones fielded by Wallace Wade and all the other great Alabama coaches. It is what it is, it stands on its own and of its own accord.
But, all of those team and all of those coaches do have one common bond -- they represented the best and strongest university in the State of Alabama. To judge the players today, to say that they love the university any less than do the players from those decades past, is to put yourself above them.
Were the players of yesterday more loyal? Maybe, but only because they were born here and raised here and ate, slept and drank Alabama football from the time they took their first breath. But to say they loved the team more than the players today that come from inside our state is just an opinion, and not one that is not supported by any facts.
College football today, at least for the successful programs, is a national sport with national reach. You can't pull for us to land that 5-star recruit from North Carolina and then be upset that he grew up as a Wolfpack fan. You can't have it both ways.
Alabama football is as much about tradition today as it has ever been, and it will be that way in ten more years whether we win another national championship or five more-- or none.
It isn't the same as 'the good ol' days.' But that doesn't make it worse. It certainly doesn't signal the demise of the Crimson Tide football that we all love,
Roll Tide
Greg Mcelroy. . . player from Texas. . . played NC game with broken ribs.
I said the "beginning" of the end.
One has to wonder ...
how can you label yourself "A Real Alabama Fan" ?
when you obviously do not know very much at all about Alabama Football .
You appear to know even less about the men that coach and play the game you state you are a "FAN" of .
If I were a betting man , I would lay odds ...
you never played any organized sport in your life .
yet you judge those that have .
from every player , coach , asst. coach , trainer to ball boy that has gave their all for Alabama Football
find a new sport to follow
you are in over your head !
Sure, that's it. I never played organized sports.
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