Roll Bama Roll takes on Brian Cook of MGoBlog once again. Todd’s eloquent title says it all: Brian Cook is, Among Other Things, a Coward and a Liar

I’m exhausted talking about Cook and his anti-Saban rants. However, I believe Cook illustrates the problem with any civil discourse in the Internet era. Once a person (or faction) becomes entrenched in a position, there is no hope of reasoned discussion.

Cook is a good blogger; but each of his posts involving Nick Saban is filled with such venom that I’d swear I was reading Phillip Marshall’s Auburn website a Josh Moon column.

Cook has ignored facts in his quest to paint Saban as the anti-Christ of college athletics. Unfortunately, his quest is not original. The Miami media (with Saban’s own help) had a large head start.

But the larger lesson from the Cook saga is discouraging. If someone as proficient, and competent as Cook behaves this way, then what is the larger application to modern discourse?

This whole saga reminded me of this line from the Gorgias:“as make-up is to gymnastics, so is sophistic to legislation; and as cookery to medicine, so is rhetoric to justice.”

Cook has no facts on which to base his latest post. But that doesn’t matter. He isn’t interested in truth; his only interest is the rhetoric of debate.

And that is sad.

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While I’m on Roll Bama Roll, they have a new Guide to Alabama football hitting the newsstands. According to RBR, it has been spotted at Booksamillion in Brookwood Mall. (Had I been able to get Brookwood’s WiFi to work last night, I’d have hit the mall and snagged myself a copy. I guess I’ll have to wait until later today to get the pleasure.)

NEWSFLASH: Freshman to play key roles

The Montgomery Advertiser runs with this EXCLUSIVE previously unreported information—Alabama is thin and will need help from the most recent recruiting class.

Which freshman will make the biggest impact? Well, Nick Saban isn’t saying.

From the Daily Sentinel:

Saban said naming names creates only added pressure and could hurt a player’s confidence if that predicted early success doesn’t come.

“It’s not fair,” Saban said, “let the guy create his own expectations.

“Now we think guys are going to go from the high school prom to the SEC and expect them to change the game. Some do, but it’s unfair to put those expectations on them.”

For our Auburn readers
Arkansas, Auburn, Ole Miss, Miss State, South Carolina and Vandy rarely, if ever sold out their games.

Football creeps closer
As the week closes out, we get that much closer to SEC Media Days. That means fall camp is just around the corner too. I know as we swelter under the heat it doesn’t seem close, but we are almost through the doldrums.

17 thoughts on “Friday links”

  1. Yes lets all blame Nick Saban. He left those poor, poor, MSU Spartans, LSU Tigers and Miami Dolphins better than he found them. Damn that man!
    Sometimes as fans we get a little over the top. Sometime “unbiased” sports writers do the same. Cook showed that he has nothing better to do than whore himself out to the lowest common denominator of sports journalism. He is currently somewhere between the Geraldo Rivera and Jerry Springer levels.

    People can say what they want. But damn if I am not tired of Saban bashing. It is getting redundant to the point of were it is just plain boring anymore. Yes the man left Miami sooner than a lot of people would have liked. Funny thing about that is that Miami could have fired him on a moment’s notice. So all things being equal. He made a life decision that was in his best interest… Big Deal…..who wouldnt do the same thing? People leave their jobs all the time. Why should coaching be any different.
    Before Mr. Cook sinks his confused noteriety starved fangs into Coach Saban. I would really like to know how many millions he has donated to The University of Michigan.
    I know that Nick Saban has donated money to the University and set up scholarship funds and in general has made a civic investment in the University of Alabama that wasnt required. To my mind that states that obviously he has every intention of staying the course and sharing not only in the sports but in the civic life at the Capstone. I couldnt be happier at this present time with Nick and Terry Saban.

  2. It doesnt make a hill of beans to me if ANY coach leaves ANY nfl team. The nfl is the epitome of a cut-throat business. The thing that gets me is the lack of loyalty to the college ranks. Yeh Tubbs left in the pine box. Lets face it. The Miss. job was a dead end. Did yall know the nickname of the p.o.s. plane that Ole Miss used to fly T.T. around in? The pine box. So that may have been an inside joke on the University. LSU was not a dead end job. I guess Saban just realised he screwed up when he went pro. I actually dont dislike the man. The thing that kills me is the Bamma fans who think that just because he stepped foot in the Tuscaloosa city limits that yall will win the SEC. Be realistic and let time take its course. For the good or the bad.

  3. Call me crazy or blind…but when has Phillip Marshall ever bashed Nick Saban or the Bama nation? Point me in that direction, because I have never seen it or is it another attempt to mention Auburn when Auburn had nothing to do with the topic of your article? Just a simple question.

  4. Call me crazy or blind…but when has Phillip Marshall ever bashed Nick Saban or the Bama nation? Point me in that direction, because I have never seen it or is it another attempt to mention Auburn when Auburn had nothing to do with your topic, just to spark a little Auburn bash session(which was going to happen any way if you had or had not mentioned Auburn)? Just a simple question Lol!!!

  5. I said Phillip Marshall out of habit. He’s not as bad as Bryan Matthews or some of the stuff at autigers.com or what many of the Auburn blogs regularly write or that idiot Josh Moon of the Montgomery Advertiser.

    Moon would’ve been the better choice, because Marshall actually has some talent and ability, whereas Moon is just a blowhard. 🙂

  6. yeah, Cap. Maybe you should change to “a Josh Moon Column.” You don’t want to be accused of painting with too broad of a brush. Marshal may be a propogandist, but it seems like he’s strictly a pro-Aub propogandist.

  7. What else does Josh MOOn have to talk about? Barnies don’t care what the state of condition their program is at the current moment. They base their concerns around two subjects: The University of Alabama and Tuscaloosa. According to them, it’s not because of jealousy nor is it even a minor case of inferiority complex. It’s neither and an explanation has yet to be given on why every outlet, convenient store, and restaurant has more anti-Alabama items than they do Tech.

    MOOn is simply feeding their interests and obviously he knows Alabama PolyTECHnic Institute inside and out.

  8. Who is Brian Cook anyway? A former Miami Dolphins assistant manager? Or an alumni of LSU? I’d even go with an alumni of Alabama Tech as well.

  9. Some ex-girlfriends will spend an eternity trying to bring the ex-boyfriend down – that is at least up until they find true happiness once again.

    Obviously this Brian Cook character still suffers from misery and an unfilled void.

  10. And the only reason Joshua Moo can’t get over Saban is because he’s a beat writer for Alabama Tech. No matter if it was Saban, Stallings, Franchione, Shula, etc, no Alabama coach would be spared.

  11. The whole Cook story started out with a naked attempt to deflect criticism from RichRod to everybody’s favorite target: Saban. The original headline was something like “Saban is the real snakeoil salesman” (and RichRod is not). His shallow position has been ripped to shreds by the facts, but he has trapped himself in a corner and can’t back down, and has been forced to make the untenable assertion that all of Alabama’s medical casualties, academic casualties, and transfers are part of a malicious conspiracy by Saban to make room for the recruiting class, with of course no proof to back this up whatsoever. Just another dogmatic fool who continues to dig his hole deeper rather than eat his words.

  12. Like I said….If you need a cover story use Nick Saban. He is a really good cover up when you dont want to write anything negative about your own team.

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