Amid Player Dismissals, Alabama Fans Are Feeling Pranked

If you’re a fan of Crimson Tide sports, today almost feels like a holiday based around practical jokes and pranks.

Two Alabama players have been dismissed from the team in the past few days. Another was arrested for his second DUI. Still another suffered what may be a season-ending injury.

To our rivals, Alabama fans surely look like April Fools.

The real foolishness, however, is to pretend these events are not a simple reflection of reality.

We expect Alabama’s football players to be different. We see the photos of the dapper young men taking the train out to California to play in the Rose Bowl, and expect that same contingent of fresh-scrubbed faces to step off the team bus on the Walk of Champions.

A drive down University Boulevard on an autumn Saturday takes you past the Antebellum charm of the President’s Mansion, the towering dignity of Denny Chimes, and the muscular beauty of Bryant-Denny stadium.

It also takes you through the Strip, which on game days is packed with college students who have been testing their metabolism’s endurance since late the previous evening. Spilled beer, spilled blood and spilled bodily fluids will paint the sidewalks by the end of the night.

We expect Alabama’s football players to be different, however. We expect them to hold to a higher standard than the general student population. We see the photos of the dapper young men taking the train out to California to play in the Rose Bowl, and expect that same contingent of fresh-scrubbed faces to step off the team bus on the Walk of Champions.

April Fool.

Alabama’s current crop of players are a product of their generation. And that generation approves of marijuana use by a wide margin. While driving around high or carrying weed in the car with you is just plain stupid, it’s self-delusion to insist that a not-insignificant number of players aren’t partaking in the privacy of their bedrooms.

Jonathan Taylor is a different story altogether. While everyone now insists they knew how this story would turn out from the beginning, Taylor might have been another success story had he changed his ways.

But let’s not kid ourselves. If Taylor had been a middling high school prospect, he would never have had the chance to get kicked off both the Georgia and Alabama squads. Did you think Nick Saban gambles on third-string players with a history of domestic violence?

April Fool.

Look, it’s fun to take part in the pageantry of college football. Walking across the Quad among a sea of Tide fans of all ages connects you to a legacy of greatness with few rivals. Passing down a love of the Crimson Tide to the next generation is almost a religious rite.

But approaching that love of the game with both eyes open is absolutely necessary. Alabama football – like all of college football – is big business. Hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake. Corners are cut, transgressions are whitewashed, and sometimes people are given opportunities they wouldn’t get if they weren’t specimens of physical excellence.

This doesn’t mean we condone bad behavior or fail to hold ourselves and others to a higher standard. It only means that we should recognize that everyone has failings, and that yours or mine only look smaller because the glare of the TV cameras are nowhere to be found when we engage in our own sins.

Finding out 20-year old supermen have feet of clay is only a surprise if you have your head in the sand. Refusing to acknowledge it despite all evidence makes you an April Fool.