|
By Clint Hamilton
clint@piedmontgazette.com
Nick Saban was named the head football coach of the University of Alabama on January 3, 2007. Soon after, he started making national headlines with ESPN, and not in a good way.
While meeting with the Miami media following his initial Alabama press conference, Coach Saban made an "off-the-record" reference to "coonasses". This, of course, sparked a national story on ESPN. Not long after this episode, Coach Saban again found himself on ESPN. This time over alleged recruiting violations he supposedly committed by while visiting high school coaches in Miami, FL.
The reports were initially reported by a Miami Hurricane recruiting web site, and recently, Coach Saban found himself on ESPN Sportscenter again when Jimmy Barnes', a third string quarterback who decided to leave the team, father went to the media claiming the reason Jimmy left was due to the verbal abuse he received from Coach Saban.
Three non-stories that ESPN decided to make national headlines. Some Alabama fans seem to think ESPN has a blood feud with Alabama and Coach Saban. When we contacted ESPN for this story, their only comment was; "We are not out to harm the University of Alabama, or its head football coach, Nick Saban. We are a sports news organization and we only report stories that we feel will interest our audience".
Now that we have covered the Alabama and Nick Saban stories ESPN has reported over the last five months, let’s take a look at some college football stories ESPN has chose to ignore since the hiring of Nick Saban:
-January, three Central Michigan football players were arrested after a string of bank robberies were traced back to them.
- February, an Ohio State football player was arrested after the beating deaths of 3 women in a Columbus, Ohio night club.
- February, a Purdue football player discharged a firearm into a breast cancer march.
- March, the bodies of 19 women were found under the house of a Tennessee football player. The investigation is still on-going.
- April, 5 Western Kentucky football players were arrested in Ohio after police found 207 pounds of marijuana in the vehicle they were traveling in.
- May, the documented grade changes of two Auburn University football signees.
- May, the University of Oklahoma reported the use of illegal supplements within their football program.
- June, 9 Oregon football players were dismissed from the team after it was learned that they were receiving illegal benefits from Nike.
Maybe ESPN says they aren’t out to harm Alabama, or Nick Saban, but in this case, actions speak louder than words.
Clint Hamilton is the Sports Editor for the Piedmont Gazette
|
|
