Travis Reir....Cmon Dude, Seriously???

In the state of Alabama it is not abnormal by any stretch for writers and media types to show a little bit of homerism in their pontifications and ramblings. It's really not even completely abnormal to see things having a pretty direct slant to pacify the largest fan base in the state when it comes to anything involving the Alabama football program. This is probably typical of most states as I can recall reading some overly positive pieces done on Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas programs when I was living in those states. However, Alabama takes it to a whole different level with anything when it comes to football....and irresponsible, desperate journalism is no exception.

I'd like to introduce a column written by one Travis Reier, a writer for Bamaonline.com which is a Rivals.com site for the Alabama fan base. This is a site that is basically there to be the ultimate homers and back their team whenever possible. That is their business, they aren't around to provide realistic or legitimate news. They exist to be eternally positive and basically as a PR machine for all things UA sports. Despite that, the article written by Reier (linked here ) is so over the top in it's homerism and spin that it still needs to be called out for what it is.......irresponsible, moronic and just plain foolish dribble that sounds like it was written by any 2 bit fan instead of someone that makes their living doing this.

By now everyone in the southern part of the US has heard that Alabama LB Jimmy Johns, former 4 star super hyped HS star, was arrested on 5 counts of intent to distribute cocaine. Even in this day of college athletes and the trouble they get in, that's the kind of headline that grabs you. It may be every other day we hear about another DUI, public intox or Ryan Perriloux going to the casinos......but you just don't see 5 counts of selling coke that often. It's a big deal. Whether Alabama fans want to acknowledge that or not....it doesn't just go away and you shouldn't just dismiss it as "something that happens everywhere", which is pretty much what Reier says in an article that he posted no more than 4 hours after the news hit the wire!!! How's that for the spin machine folks. Here are some issues with the article Travis wrote and a point by point breakdown of the lunacy that he wrote:

OK, here goes: There are several individuals walking campuses around the SEC who have no business doing so. Why? Because major college football demands it. The stakes are so high that schools will reach when it comes to character in some instances.

- So this is intended to make this problem look minor? Hey guys, don't look at us, it happens everywhere. Everyone has bad kids and I'm sure every SEC school has players slinging rock to make a few extra bucks. It's really no big deal and it has to be part of college football. C'mon man...are you serious? This is classic duck and weave stuff here........even though we're in the news and got caught, we're no worse than anyone else because everybody does it. I think he wanted to write the same article when Alabama went on probation for slave trading in Memphis a few years back.

Now, the sanctimonious blowhards (the same ones who are glued to their TV sets every Saturday from September to January) will preach about how these individuals need to be purged from the system. But I wonder what they'd say if a coach signed 25 members of the Alabama Children's Choir every year and went 0-12. I think we all know the answer to that one.

- Nothing like a little hyperbole to make your point sound better Travis. There is a big difference between preaching about how what looks to be a pretty large scale drug dealer at your University should have been recognized for what he was and not given 5 chances to stay with the team versus signing 25 members of the Children's Choir and going 0-12. Here is why they call it "taking a gamble" on a player....when it blows up it your face, your reputation suffers for it. Otherwise they wouldn't call it taking a gamble or a chance, they'd just call it signing another player. Everyone associated with college football knows there are certain risks you are taking with some players....I'm not at all shocked when someone from my favorite school gets a DUI, public intox or gets sent home for the summer or maybe even sits out of few games for something stupid like missing class. I'm not even shocked when a HS star gets sent home after a year or two because he cant keep his head on straight. However I'm a little shocked when I see that a player was one of the biggest drug dealers on campus....call me crazy. The gap between signing guys that end up arrested for 5 counts of dealing narcotics and signing a boy's choir is pretty large. Believe it or not, there are teams that win games that don't have guys dealing cocaine to every party frat on campus....or maybe I'm the naive one.

I guess one could question Nick Saban's "clean slate philosophy" in regards to the players he inherited, the same approach nine out of ten coaches employ when taking over a program. The problem, which I have no doubt Saban is well aware, is that for some guys a coaching change doesn't represent a second chance; it's more like a fourth or fifth chance. There is no spinning what Johns is accused of having done. But you won't hearing me calling for a house cleaning of epic proportions. Considering that I help feed the monster on a daily basis, that would be more than a tad hypocritical.

- The mandatory "the current coach didn't do anything wrong" portion of the article. This was the same story with Mike Shula until the week before he got fired. They defended the way he handle the Juwan Simpson issue in 2006 over and over again. I can't recall how many articles were written and talk shows dedicated to the fact that Shula was doing the right thing. Auburn fans were hung up on on local radio shows for the repeated "ice cream cone" comments and laughing at the UA coaches discipline. However after loses to MSU and Auburn to end the season, "lack of control" was one of the major points given in calling for his job. What a shocking turn, right. In the state of Alabama there is no middle ground for a UA coach....you are a God or you are in front of the firing squad. It's too early to get on Saban's back, so you can assume that he will be defended even if he was caught in bed with a dead girl or live boy. Look, I have no idea (neither does any other fan or probably any journalist to be honest) if Nick Saban could have done anything to make this better. We could debate that for days and days. I do however know that this is the 10th arrest in his first 18 months on the job and at least 2 of them (Jeremy Elders armed assault and Jimmy Johns drug charges) are very, very serious crimes. For a guy that preaches "do all things like a champion" and "being the best at everything you do" this isn't a good start. Maybe 4 years from now Saban will have minimal player issues and the team will be keeping it's nose clean, but the excuse of "not his guys" doesn't work anymore. Jimmy Johns was under Saban for a year and a half and when coach brought in motivational speakers, Jimmy took it to heart. If you're going to sell, sling drugs like a champion...be the best. If I was hired to run someones company and it took me a year and a half to get rid of the bad eggs and the character issues that I was hired to fix I'd likely be looking for another job. They funniest part of this insert is that Reier calls it hypocritical to say anything about Saban's judgement because he "feeds the monster". So I guess if you ever wanted your team to win games you aren't allowed to say anything even if the players you cheered for are out selling narcotics to your 18 and 19 year old kids. Right Travis. All that was was a warning shot across the UA fanbase bow..."Dont question our fearless, perfect leader you hypocrites."

It's amazing to me that this article was slung up literally 4 hours after word hit the wire and no more than 6 hours after Johns was arrested. This is a knee jerk fans point of view on "how my teams no different from yours and it's not that big of a deal" instead of a legitimate breakdown on what happened, what it means for the program and the University and what steps they take to make sure it doesn't happen again. It almost sounds like Travis expects these kind of incidents to take place all over the SEC in the next few years, including at UA again in the future and that they should be considered "part of the business" of SEC football. Wow. I know it's tough to take the bashing from other fan bases and some national media sited along with blogs like EDSBS.com but some days you just have to take your medicine Travis. Some days you really shouldn't be trying to defend your program and coach....you should just take the beating that comes with "a gamble" on a player and leave it at that. Or you could do something constructive, like say call for the players to do a better job policing themselves, the coaches to be more responsible for the character they keep on campus or the University you represent to be more active in making sure guys that are rumored on every single message board on the Internet to be the schools largest drug dealer aren't driving around campus hitting every frat party in 1 hour on their moped without someone digging in a little bit. You could try to rally the fan base that you write for to demand more of their team than the status quot of multiple summer arrests and drug dealing linebackers. You could ask for the level of character to be raised and for the program not to embarrass itself. Of course, that would interfere with your "we didn't do anything that everyone else isn't doing" mentality.