Which means it is time for another Saban article by somebody, somewhere.
Coach Saban kicked off his press conference with the following statements:
“Changes in history usually occur after some kind of catastrophic event,” Saban said. “It may be 9-11, which sort of changed the spirit of America relative to catastrophic events. Pearl Harbor kind of got us ready for World War II, and that was a catastrophic event.”
*cracks knuckles* ooooh boy. Look, I don’t like what he said, but not for the same reasons that Kevin Scarbinsky does.
I got the point Saban was trying to put out. He wanted people (and the team) to realize that they have to rally together if they are to get out of this rut we’re currently in. I also doubt he meant to say that losing these two games were as bad as 9/11 or Pearl Harbor. But, when you’ve been under the national media’s stare for 10 months, using impractical examples will, and should, get you bad attention.
People say stupid things and use bad examples in regard to sports. Kellen Winslow Jr. got criticized for his soldier comments. David Housel mentioned Vietnam while talking about war against Alabama in his Auburn Manifesto (click the first clip called “David Housel Comments”) and he got criticized for it. They were stupid examples to use, even if they got their messages across.
Even though you might not mean something, people will think of certain things whenever you mention events like 9/11 or Vietnam. Over-reaching for examples will lead to the re-introduction of bad memories, for which you should be smart enough to realize that you’ve said too much. Why not associate that with making an “F” on an exam, causing you to realize that you need to study more often and work harder? It’s something EVERYBODY can understand since most of us may have had an experience like that at one time or another. Now, you’re giving people more fodder, more reasons to put up roadblocks in your path towards correcting things. You also leave your comments open for other people to define them for you.
Will I be called a homer for this? I don’t care if people accuse me of it or not. I don’t take Saban’s comments as the insults of all insults, as is American media policy these days in regards to things of this nature. But, I don’t think it is proper to use such far reaching examples to make a simple point.
