AJ McCarron to Appear in Reality Show, Controversy Ensues

Feb 23, 2014; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback A.J. McCarron throws the ball during the 2014 NFL Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

Former Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron hasn’t yet been drafted by an NFL team yet, but controversy already swirls around him.

It has recently been revealed that he and soon-to-be wife Katherine Webb will be appearing in a reality show that will follow them around as they prepare to get married and McCarron trains for the NFL Draft.

Cameras were even on hand during McCarron’s proposal to Webb last month. At first glance that situation doesn’t seem very controversial at all. Reality shows have become a rather normal thing in our society, unfortunately, and it’s not even a new thing in sports. HBO’s “Hard Knocks” has been one of the most popular sports driven reality shows on TV for years as has HBO’s “24/7” series following around boxers as they prepare for a huge fight. Even former Alabama tailback Trent Richardson appeared on the Travel Channel’s Cleveland Browns based reality show “NFL Road Tested” a few years ago.

That didn’t stop Washington Redskins safety and sometimes ESPN analyst Ryan Clark from turning it into a controversy. Clark made the statement on Twitter that he didn’t understand how the recent controversy over Robert Griffin III unveiling a new “logo” for himself was such a big deal yet McCarron filming a reality show isn’t:

McCarron didn’t let it slide, as he responded later via Twitter:

Now, McCarron’s Tweet is a bit odd as he will obviously appear in the reality show even if his wife is the one that it will be centered around, and it’s also been reported that the show will feature him training for the NFL Draft. Clark went on to make a further statement during ESPN’s “NFL Live” today with some rather condescending remarks about McCarron and how it is hypocritical for people to make a big deal out of RGIII’s logo but not McCarron’s TV show.

Clark said he didn’t have a problem with McCarron being a part of a TV show. Clark claimed that McCarron is “shielded” from the same criticisms that people like RGIII and Johnny Manziel receive for doing similar things.

Personally I couldn’t care less about RGIII’s logo or Johnny Manziel hanging out and partying with celebrities or trade marking “Johnny Football.” Until it affects what you do on the field, who cares? I thought it was fairly disrespectful for ESPN to give Ryan Clark the platform to whine and throw shots at AJ McCarron, while not giving McCarron the same platform to rebut Clark’s comments, considering that McCarron was filming for ESPN’s “Gruden Camp” all day, so it’s not like he wasn’t around or anything. “NFL Live” host Trey Wingo also took a few shots at McCarron during the segment which made it seem like he was just defending the sometime ESPN analyst Clark.

What’s funny and stupid about this whole situation is that the reality show has literally just been announced and doesn’t even have a TV network as of yet, but Clark immediately used his voice on Twitter to show his outrage over the fact that there was no outrage over McCarron’s reality show in turn creating the outrage I guess he was looking for. You would think he would have at least given it a day for people to show a bit of outrage over something that is just so heinous as McCarron appearing on a TV show, kind of like how Ryan Clark was on “NFL Live” today whining.

Thankfully things will be all football when McCarron appears on ESPN’s “Gruden Camp” on April 26^th at 4:00 PM (central) on ESPN.

Editor’s note: This piece was written by BamaHammer writer Josh Boutwell. We were having some technical glitches at publishing time, so it’s under Tony’s byline.