I prefer your word choice of "irresponsible" much more than the two words you went with upstream in an earlier post... "ridiculous and despicable". Once you've labeled another poster's viewpoint with words like despicable, it makes it more difficult to have a civil conversation.
Well, the poster that I was taking exception is no longer around. Having said that, my choice of words sometimes are overly barbed and generally that's not my intent. I don't intend to make a discussion personal. When I hear someone compare the situation to FSU, I hear something like "
That's like a player raping someone and the University covering it up". That provokes an emotional reaction on my part because I do view rape in a different context, and the details are very different.
I pay my money as a fan to see the games, but merchandise, and the like. Very asymmetrical, indeed. So it makes perfect sense. I appreciate the "coaching" of fans, but sometimes the coach needs coached as well.
One of the toughest things a high profile coach has to deal with would be fans/boosters. Yes, they are necessary, but they often demand interaction with him and time which he really has little of to spare. I've never heard a single major football coach tell a story about how that one boosters who he had to talk to coached him up and gave him the right advice. To me it's like going up to Peyton Manning and giving him advice on how to throw the football.
I'm sure Nick Saban can use advice on a lot of things, like finances, or the like because he devotes his time and efforts into being a football coach and doesn't focus on those things. Mind you, if he wasn't absolutely one of the best at what he does, if he didn't have a stellar track record, I'd buy into the notion that may be he needs advice. But, this isn't giving Johnny Manziel tips on how to throw the ball, this is giving Peyton Manning tips. This isn't trying to coach Mike Shula, this is talking about a guy who outdid Mike Shula in every way I think think of, including academics.
So when Coach Saban criticizes those who question him on the matter I have a problem with that because not all of us are merely sitting in the stands without any potential direct repercussions from his decision.
I watched the entire clip. What he did was adamantly defend giving a player a second chance. He didn't defend DJ's actions, he didn't try to say well DJ didn't actually do anything, instead he just laid out how it can provide tremendous benefit to give a player a second chance. You want to talk about girls in college, well that was his main example. A girl is going to Princeton in part because her dad got a second chance.
At the least, Pettway was an accessory to a violent assault and robbery. We can argue all day the exact role, the legalities, and the rightness or wrongness thereof...but while we don't have all the info, we do know that much and our opinions on the legality and their rightness matters even less as the DA care not what we think.
I have tried to be careful not to defend DJ's actions, much in the same way I think Saban was careful not to. The way Jimbo went out there and stood up for abusers of women was disgusting to me, and if Saban did that I'd express my disgust. But, there are two things that are relevant in terms of Pettway that I guess have to be reiterated. One of the two victims said he did not believe DJ participated in the assault. I don't know what the other said, but there is also a report DJ did not leave the car. That does make a world of difference to me, and I would have trepidation if I saw any indication DJ so much as threw a punch. But, a guy sitting in a car doing nothing is not a threat to your daughter. It's as simple as that.
I brought up one thing about myself already, but I grew up in the Williamson district in Mobile. It was a rough neighborhood. I had other stuff going on, I even lived by myself for a while when I was 16. I wasn't a bad kid, I never got into any real trouble, but I was an unhappy kid and I did act out. One incident involved my hanging out with one of my older (adult) brother's friends. One morning we end up in Mississippi, there's one other guy with us, I'm the only non-adult present. He starts saying everyone is at church and we can just break into a house. Now, it was dumb of me to be in the car with them in the first place. I should have been extremely vocal about my disagreement with this idea, however, this is someone who later on threatened to kill me if I didn't comply with his demands. He also at another point threatened to drop me off in the middle of nowhere. So, the right thing to do was clear, but it's not so black and white if you consider a broke kid with no phone being dropped off in rural Mississippi, or worse having something happen to him because he argues with the wrong guy. So, I didn't resist the idea and fortunately he decided not to do it.
But, if he'd gone into a house, and who knows what might have happened, we all know I'd have been charged in the crime. And I would have been in the wrong for not trying to stop him, but no, that wouldn't have made me what that guy is. It wouldn't have made me a threat to others. It merely would mean I showed poor judgement. I don't at all agree with lumping kids together, and tossing some away like garbage because they happened to be around the wrong people, because they happened to be from a tougher environment and might not be as appalled by poor behavior as others might be. I'll tell you, you have to relearn how to deal with people once you get outside a hostile environment. And it's oh so easy to judge, if you don't know what it's like, and it's not an excuse for poor behavior, but we go way too far in my opinion to lump the aggressor and people who might be his friend or acquaintance together. A guy can have his life ruined because he sat in a car. I think that goes too far, and I think minor details matter in these type situations.
Having said all of that, I do think it's ok to say you disagree with Nick Saban (although I would have harsher words for anyone whose stated goal is for Saban to leave, and that has happened here surprisingly). Whether or not you're a fan, whether or not you have a kid going to the college. That's fine. But, I'm an inherently honest guy and for my part my opinion is formed according to what I know and my understanding. As long as someone is being civil and reasonable in what they say though, I see nothing wrong with discussing issues like this on either side of the fence.