If you’re a football fan in the state of Alabama, August can’t get here quickly enough.The same is true if you’re a football coach in the state of Alabama.
Actually, that’s not fair. Football coaches — both in college and the pros — dread the summertime, when the boys they’ve recruited (or hired) to take them to the top of the mountain are turned loose for two months with little to do besides play video games and watch re-runs of “Sportscenter.”
Just take a look at the headlines dominating the major media markets where football is concerned. An LSU alum drowns in Lake Pontchartrain. Michael Vick is being outed as a major player on the dogfighting circuit.
Old brushes with the law – I’m thinking specifically of Pacman Jones and Tank Johnson — are also still fresh in the minds of football fans everywhere as well.
Here at home, the news isn’t much better. Nick Saban may have violated an NCAA rule. Two recruits from Auburn may have had their grades changed.
It’s not as though this hasn’t happened before. In fact, we were just here last summer, with several Auburn players being arrested for alcohol-related offenses, followed by Alabama’s Juwan Simpson arrested for marijuana. When he subsequently delivered his famous, “I think he should buy me an ice cream cone” monologue later that summer, the era of head coach Mike Shula looked to be on death’s door (and, in fact, it was).
You want run-ins with the law? Try Athens, Ga. Head coach Mark Richt, try as he might, can’t seem to keep his guys out of trouble, and an untold number of red-and-black football players have had to sit out multiple games early in the season.
In fact, already this offseason, UGA quarterback Matt Stafford was found on the Internet hoisting a keg (of what we’re sure was Pepsi) at a campground outside Talladega Superspeedway.
You can see from these headlines why so many coaches place so much emphasis on their off-season programs. To keep the players in shape, sure ... but keeping them on campus and out of trouble is just as important.
Really, it’s not as though college athletes are unique among their peers, and untold numbers of college students everywhere find ways to get in trouble with the law during summertime, either because of the heat or because they all have way, way too much time on their hands.
Are things any worse now than they’ve ever been? Having read a number of books regarding the history of football in the SEC, I’d say no, not really. Football coaches had to deal with the rebelliousness of the ‘60s as well as drug use in the ‘70s, and nothing in the news now is any better or worse than those time periods.
In fact, just read a little about Paul Bryant’s days at Alabama, dealing with hot-shot quarterbacks Joe Namath and Kenny Stabler. And no Alabama player has distinguished off the field quite like those guys have in years (then again, no one has distinguished himself on the field in a long time, either).
As fans, we’re holding our breath through the next two months, until practice starts and we can start looking forward to the first days of football.
As for the coaches, well, they’re doing pretty much the same thing.
