As Alabama football players prepare for a new season, Crimson Tide fans might do a little preparation by considering history and expectations.
Alabama football fans might need some fall camp drills just like the team. We all unrealistically define every season’s success on championships. So much so that the appreciation of SEC championships has waned in recent years. It is almost as if the 24-hour rule for savoring a win has turned into a 24-second rule for post-season wins not ending in a national championship.
As Nick Saban has often stated, there is no continuum of success. For Alabama football, there is a continuum of expectations. Those expectations have driven the program all the way back to Wallace Wade. Frank Thomas, Paul Bryant, Gene Stallings and Nick Saban have embraced those expectations. So have other coaches that did not prove up to fulfilling them.
Outsiders often view our obsessive expectations as arrogance. They are entitled to their opinions and we don’t much care anyway. All fans are driven by greater or lesser degrees of fanaticism. Hence the label, fans.
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There is nothing wrong with being crazy passionate about a team. Unless the craziness leads to doing bodily harm, damaging the property of others or brings a karma-like decay to our own program.
There is a downside to our expectations, if and when, we judge others harshly for being less than superhuman. Our coaches and particularly our still maturing players are not without flaws. They make mistakes and errors in judgment. They suffer human failings we typically accept in ourselves but not in our heroes.
All the above is especially true for our head coaches and our quarterbacks. We don’t actually expect them to be actual gods. We do demand of them a constant delivery of saying and doing the right things. And when they fall short of an unattainable deity status, we are quick to bash them. Too often and from too many of us, bashing turns to discarding.
While lessons from history are currently not much in vogue, they still carry value. Gene Stallings has lived a life of steadfast adherence to standards. As quaint as it seems now, Stallings declined discussions about possibly replacing Bear Bryant because he felt obligated to his Dallas Cowboys contract.
When Joe Namath missed curfew after a night of beer drinking, Tide assistants implored Bryant to not suspend Joe for the Sugar Bowl. Stallings was the only assistant who argued suspension was Bryant’s only choice. During his Crimson Tide head coaching career, Stallings had to deal with a troubled David Palmer who got in far more trouble than Namath. When some Tide fans and both state and national media demanded Palmer be suspended or dismissed, Stallings decided otherwise.
After Stallings and Palmer had both left Tuscaloosa, Gene explained his discipline decision was because David Palmer needed the anchor of support the team provided. David Palmer now coaches high school football. He is lauded for his leadership and for his determination to build character in his players.
Alabama football fans might want to consider the Stallings and Palmer story before casting aside any current player. Nick Saban’s judgment should also be trusted. It has proven to be as sound as was Stallings’ and Bryant’s. None of them were flawless. All of them are or were correct with extraordinary accuracy.
In terms of media, a good starting point is to ignore the loudest whose shouts are most often driven by self-interest.
One more point in this preseason advice to Alabama football fans – lay off Mamas. They are not fair game, no matter how much we dislike or disagree with what they do or say. One of their many underappreciated jobs in life is standing up for their boys.
For those offended or dismayed by the suggestion, we Alabama football fans might need a little preseason attitude adjustment – your opinions carry equal value. Chime in, deride, flood twitter with counter-arguments. We will take notice even if we don’t respond.