Can someone advise on a detailed synopsis of this, either a book or long form article, that provides more in depth explanations beyond simply "Fullmer is a backstabber"?
I'm too lazy to search for a link right now, but be advised, the entire story is harder to follow than five seasons of Turn: Washington's Spies.
In fact, it was difficult to keep the whole story straight as it was unfolding. And as of now, most of us are happy to have forgotten most of it.
But since you asked a sincere question, I'll give you a brief synopsis. Others can fill in the (many) details I've left out.
Back in the early 2000's, we had a dirty booster in Memphis named Logan Young. Tennessee had a dirty booster, also in Memphis, named Roy Adams who, by the way, was a flagrant homosexual. These two were former friends and both were dirty, with Adams openly bragging on the old Gridscape (Vols) board about paying players. Long story short, Logan Young allegedly paid a fat, slow defensive lineman $200k to sign with Alabama.
On the day our punishment was announced by the NCAA, Roy Adams went on Gridscape and posted EXACTLY what our punishment was going to be and he got every single detail correct.
After we got burned by the NCAA, it came out later that Phillip Fulmer had been "secret witness #2" against us with the NCAA. He was the Viles' head coach at the time. Secret witness #1 was a disgruntled recruiting analyst.
Fulmer was reported as telling at least one recruit, "
Alabama will be out of business in a few years."
There were rumors for months that Tee Martin, the former UT quarterback on their NC team, was being paid by a UT booster down in Mobile, Alabama named Diane Sanford. This woman had attended UT along with everyone else in her family and had orange crap all over her office. Once the wire receipts proving that Tee was sent money were published in a newspaper, what happened to UT? NOTHING. Why? Because the NCAA declared Diane Sanford as "not a booster." Altogether, Tee received about $4500.00 if I remember correctly.
Previously, we had a player who bought an old beater Jeep Cherokee from a tote-the-note lot in Tuscaloosa. That player transferred to Florida, failed to make his payments, and the Cherokee was repossessed. We got burned over that because an Alabama coach or assistant (I forget which) had "recommended" that car lot to him, even though zero money was exchanged.
So in short, UT was getting away with murder while Alabama was getting a deep probe by the NCAA. The SEC commissioner, Roy Kramer, was definitely not our friend.
What I just posted is approximately 0.0125% of the entire story, but to be honest, I'm thankful to have forgotten most of it.
But rest assured that the Bama Nation will never forget what Phillip Fulmer tried to do to us.