I f I read one more whine from Alabama fans about how Paul Finebaum is hurting the program I’m going to jump out a window.
OK, so my window is on the first floor. I’ll still do it.
Seriously, Finebaum talking about Castille’s arrest and the other football players arrested during the Summer isn’t hurting the program. The idiotic actions of the football players hurt the program. Or at least the program’s image.
Talking about the behavior of student-athletes isn’t wrong. Asking questions of the coaching staff isn’t wrong. And Alabama fans would be howling if these same situations afflicted the Auburn program. We would be demanding answers. We would be looking for a cover-up.
The Castille arrest was absurd. But Castille’s behavior was absurd.
And yes, Alabama fans defending Castille on talk radio is absurd—I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the more I watch Alabama sports, the more I’m reminded of The Stranger. When pastors call talk radio and argue that yelling curse words in the street really wasn’t a big deal, I think of Meursault.
Or perhaps not Meursalt. It is more sophistry.
It is fine for fans to say Nick Saban is going to handle it. We have confidence that Saban understands what it takes to win football games. In other words, he knows you can’t have a team without discipline.
I’m also impressed with Saban’s sophisticated theory of discipline. He makes a distinction between punishment and discipline. Discipline is a restorative process, while punishment is a tool of the process. You can’t focus on just the tool, but rather you should focus on the end result. I’m impressed. I think Alabama fans have good reason to put their faith in Saban’s abilities to lead.
I totally agree I keep hearing everyone defending Castille, and blaming the officer. I don’t think what he did was the end of the world, but he still showed poor judgement. Let the courts settle it.
To quote his radio show, “Finebaum is as Finebaum does.”
I don’t blame Finebaum for wanting to talk about the issues of the day, it makes for a good debate. Sure, I may disagree with him on a few topics, but that’s what this country is about. There are callers out there that try to hurt the program more than Finebaum ever will.
Agreed. If you read the message boards, you would never know that Finebaum has such a large number of listeners. If all of these people hate him so much, then don’t listen. He pisses me off a lot of times too, but I get more aggrivated at those “fans” who don’t want to read/hear anything but good news. If that is what you want, then just go to http://www.rolltide.com. I guarantee you will not see anything about Simeon’s arrest there.
Anyone with a functioning brain stem knows that Finebaum is a shill for Bama.