I found myself recently visiting the construction site of our current stadium expansion. The construction is being undertaken by the Brasfield & Gorrie company, based out of Birmingham. While talking with some of the crew, it was mentioned that there was some Auburn contingent amongst the workers. This seemed harmless enough, and is common for any place of business in this state. However, it was the phone conversation that I overheard while in an office that prompted this post.

I had been left alone momentarily when a gentleman entered while talking to a friend on his phone. He seemed to be paying me no mind, and starting talking about cursing the stadium. How? By laying a picture of Tommy Tuberville into the concrete of the to-be completed southern expansion. Sadly, no specific locations or dates for the burial were given. I had just wrapped up my business and proceeded for the exit thinking, “You just told the wrong dude about this. I write an Alabama blog, asshole!”

I am not a superstitious man. To me, this only represents the idiotic and desperate measures to which Auburn fans have been driven to by their recent mediocrity. But not all bama fans feel this way. Superstitions and fandom go hand in hand for most people; be it a lucky shirt, favorite seat, chants or what-have-you. Now that I think of it, most fans that I know have some form superstition. Is it that far of a leap to also believe in a curse? It is not for me to decide. I was only privy to the information and I’ll leave it for the bama faithful to make the next move. This post may not make the slightest ripple, with people saying that this curse isn’t worth the 8×10″ glossy photo it’s based on. But if history is any indication, fans may take this issue to heart. During the construction of the new Yankee Stadium, it leaked that some contractors/Red Sox fans had buried an Ortiz jersey in the stands. Fans and Yankee staff were upset by the stunt enough to jackhammer the jersey out of its hiding spot.

There is plenty of time for teams to bottom out, players to miss an entire year to injury, quickly shedding the tag ‘can’t miss’ and being relabeled ‘project player’ or the dreaded ‘college graduate’. The last couple of years quarterbacks such as Cullen Harper and Brian Brohm dive bombed from preseason top-ten picks, and we can be sure there are plenty in these lists that will end up scrambling for free agent deals, we can hope it is not our guys though.

Prisco on CSB Sports:

11. Terrence Cody
30. Rolando McClain

Sports Illustrated:
SI seems to rank Javy the highest. Remember when he was a return man who was occasionally spotted in the defensive backfield?

10. Terrence Cody
18. Rolando McClain
27. Javier Arenas

NFL Draft Scout:
OK, first of all, this list is insanely long and insanely early, and does not include underclassmen. It’s good to see Mike Johnson and Justin Woodall show up.

8. Terrence Cody
24. Javier Arenas
39. Mike Johnson
79. Justin Woodall

NFL Draft Dog:
The ‘Dog’ has Cody waaay up there at #2. Jesus, I’d love to see Cody on the stage with Roger Goodell, smiling, with some shitty teams hat on his head!

2. Terrence Cody
13. Rolando McClain

NFL Draft Site:

5. Terrence Cody
32. Javier Arenas
56. Mike Johnson
118. Justin Woodall

Andre Smith
Cincinnati Bengals

The sixth overall pick seemed to be a foregone conclusion to most Bengal fans. Reactions were mixed, but for the most part positive:

“hopefully he just doesnt leave a game at half time and not tell anyone”

One Cincy fan says that Andre’s family reminds him of the Klumps. “Hercules! Hercules!”

“typical bengals first rd. gaffe. smith is a fat @ss with a a bra size that makes morganna jealous. monroe was the more solid pick at that point. he’ll spend a year or two as a turnstyle at LT before they move to G. we essentially picked an overwieght, immature guard with the sixth pick of the draft. hell, if you didn’t like monroe at that pick you may as well took crabtree instead of some buffet wrecking, bust-in-waiting.”

“A++! Would draft again!. No we just need to trade Chad’s bitch ASS!”

Most reactions were realistic though, such as these two:

“Andre Smith was THE pick there. No doubt. Wouldnt look back. I really dont even care if he ends up at RT. 3 years of dominance, dude is ready to do what you need him to do in the NFL. He doesnt go down, he gets his hands on a defender and they dont get away.”

“Who cares if Smith ends up a RT. The Bengals drafted Willie Anderson at #10 to be a RT and that worked out pretty good. You need two tackles to tango and we landed the best overall talent at the OT position the draft had to offer. The only reason he wasn’t the top is because his decision making wasn’t great in January.”

After lurking in the Bengal’s blogs, rumor is that HBO’s pre-season team-jinxing show, Hard Knocks, has selected Cincinnati as the team they’ll be following this year. So we get to see how Andre handles the pressure of being a first rounder in the ballet.

Glen Coffee
San Francisco 49ers

In a pick that was a pretty big surprise, the 49ers grabbed Glen in the 3rd round. In true San Francisco style, they grabbed him right in his chaps.

One Commenter Says “Andre Brown still on the board and we take Coffee? That guy wasn’t even the best back on his college team.”

“Well than they just pulled an Al Davis and drafted a guy at least 2 full rounds to early while leaving much more talented RB’s on the board.”

Not everyone in San Fran is upset with the Coffee pick, they see alot of upside. What’s funny is that there seemed to be quite a few reactions like this, “Not picking Darius Butler and Rashad Johnson will haunt us.” Niners fan’s calls for Rashad were scattered all over the boards, only to see their rival in Arizona scoop him up.

Antoine Caldwell
Houston Texans

The Texan fans seem to be happy with this pick, remember, this is a team that let their QB get sacked 76 times once.

Rashad Johnson
Phoenix Cardinals

Kind of a weird pick, with Adrian Wilson and Antrel Rolle pretty firmly entrenched at safety. But this fan tries to make sense of it: “The Cards have tended to draft positions they felt could become a “need” a season or two in the future. Considering Johnson’s addition to the Cardinals, does this indicate the Cardinals intention to let Rolle test the FA market after this season?”

Once again, it’s a mixed bag of reactions. “Overall this may end up being the smartest pick of the draft for the Cardinals. Also sounds like they got a steal for the end of the third round.” And conversely, “A safety and now a corner? we just upgraded corner via free agency, we have our starters there. is whiz thinking we can get sacks with the front 7 we have if the coverage can last longer?”

John Parker Wilson
JPW landed in Atlanta as a free agent, where he’ll go to camp and compete with DJ Shockley and Chris Redman for a backup spot.

Overall, this was the best draft class that Alabama has had in a long time. Nick Saban now has something to point at to incoming recruits who want to make it to the pro-level. Hell, word is that Saban’s efforts kept Andre in the top ten and elevated Rashad into the 3rd round. It’s not hard to imagine that we can look forward even more successful drafts in the near future.

Ted Ginn Jr

The Jets

Jets fans Boo Patriots pick before its called

And of course, the Eagles boo Donovan, and 30,000 yards later, many still are

Several Alabama players will have their 69 Boyz ringtones at the ready during the NFL draft this Saturday, repeatedly cursing every unknown number they get a call from. The Tide’s 2008 draft class was legendary in all the wrong ways, with no names getting called and (unless I missed something) no 2008 guys even making it on rosters as free agents.

Andre Smith
4th OT (NFL Draft Countdown)
WalterFootball has him ranked as the 63rd player overall (!)
Mock Drafts: Don Banks 6th to Bengals, Todd McShay 7th to Raiders
In Case you forgot about Andre’s missteps, well they replayed all the shit during the A-day telecast, and they’ll replay it again at least 11 times on ESPN and the NFL network. I’m convinced its on a permanent loop at one ESPN engineer’s workstation. Before his bacon grease slathered screwups, Andre had a chance to be Alabama’s first number one overall draft pick since Harry Gilmer in 1948.

Rashad Johnson
3rd Safety (NFL Draft Countdown)
Rashad has had a storybook career, going from walk-on running back to defensive field general. Rashad is likely the number one safety for several teams, but they rarely pick safety’s in the first round, especially small ones.

Antoine Caldwell
5th Center (NFL Draft Countdown)
Caldwell is in the upper-middle of the pack in a year of solid centers, but I believe his attitude, intelligence and versatility give him an excellent shot at sticking with an NFL team.

Glen Coffee
12th RB (NFL Draft Countdown)
Either because of his family’s financial need, the rebuilding Tide offensive line, Pat Robertson’s 700 Club, or the highly anticipated Trent Richardson arrival, the time seemed right for Coffee to percolate into the NFL.

John Parker Wilson
15th QB (NFL Draft Countdown)
A solid Senior Bowl and combine may get him drafted on the second day. Likely you’ll hear the entire state of Alabama groan if he gets selected, but he’s not supposed to beat out Tom Brady or anything, he really has the qualities an NFL team would want for a third string QB.

Travis McCall
21st Tight End (NFL Draft Countdown)
McCall’s blocking puts him on the map at the same time he knocks other people off theirs. While he’ll probably end up a free agent, with the proliferation of the spread, he has the advantage of coming from a pro style offense and has been used often in the H back role.

Nick Walker
You hear surprisingly little about Alabama’s second leading receiver. The guy got into some great shape after the 2006 season to become an excellent receiving threat, and my crimson colored glass don’t remember him being a liability blocking. I’d love to see him on a team with an accurate QB like Peyton Manning or Drew Brees, but he’ll have to hope he gets picked up as an undrafted free agent.

BUT, in the words of LSU bloggers And the Valley Shook “the 2007 Alabama Crimson Tide changed the way we look at Spring Games“. (Though, quickly forgotten, Ohio State pulled in 75,000 that same year, and they actually charge admission, and it was probably colder and their coach looks like a math teacher) Anyway, point being, the fan support  and circus like atmosphere of 84 thousand folks watching a practice helps recruiting and serves as a selling point for the program in general.

The Good
Everyone’s favorite endzone poser Marquis Maze impressed on the white team, he got open as much as anyone, showed some serious moves and led all rushers with his two gimmicky scampers. While his dropped passes were troubling, he made a case to be used in a Percy Harvin/Trindon Holliday role.

The Bad
The kicking game was uglier than a salad made of used diapers. The punting looked awful and Tiffin missed two FG’s. Understandable, with all the pressure of this game. Fragile psyches on the special teams, you know this. The white team offensive line was manhandled by the crimson defensive line.

The Quarterbacks
Greg Mcelroy (G-Mac?) looks every bit the starter, and his 2 touchdown passes were right on target. It’s only his lack of bama bangs that has the Tower concerned. This is a tradition that goes back over a decade, and we hate to see it broken now.

A-Club Classic
Around 30,000 showed up to watch the game before the game that doesn’t count, the first annual A-Club 7 on 7. I missed out on this, but I’m sure the reality was far less exciting than my mental image of 52 year-old sideline reporter and goal line stand hero Barry Krauss trying to grab a hanky out of Tyrone Prothro’s pocket.

ESPN
If you kept your ass at home, you were no doubt treated to a bit more of Boston Celtic basketball than you were planning on. When the guys in the booth weren’t on their cell phones, cursing at ESPN headquarters for sending them to cover a Spring game, they decided to chew up some clock by looking at every single SEC teams schedule, as well as continuing last seasons favorite past time, “Who Can Shove Their Head Furthest Up Tim Tebow’s Asshole?” Lundquist FTW!

Worth Checking Out
New Blog Bryant Drive have posted their own A-day awards, including the The David Cavan Handicapable Appendage Award.

Dr Saturday has a good piece on Viginia Tech; Tide vs Hokies kickoff in only about 5 months, jeeze time flies.

An Auburn frat-rodeo video is making the rounds; nothing really special, rednecks love big sweaty animals.

Regarding Andre Smith, Mel Kiper says that “Nick Saban has gone to bat for this kid” and thinks he won’t drop past pick 13 in the NFL Draft. Sitting at pick 13 are the District of Colombians, where Alabama’s last bad ass left tackle, Chris Samuels, still starts.

Kevin Scarbinsky thinks ex interim basketball coach Phillip Pearson may go to Georgia, I like the use of the word may, like, we may not see as many inflammatory bullshit predictions from the guy for a little while. (EDIT: and he was right!)

Antoine Pettway might be retained on Anthony Grants staff, I remember thinking it was a tough break for Pettway, to find himself on the Assistant Coach chopping block just a year removed from his job at Jacksonville State.

I really thought Georgia would out-hire Alabama on this (and they still might I suppose), they have a better area to recruit in and there’s lots more shit to do around there. Just based on the couple of games I caught on TV, I thought that Georgia would have crushed Alabama’s game attendance, even with their struggling squad. But, while perusing the SEC’s Stats on UA and UGA, Alabama’s disillusioned fanbase showed notably more support down the stretch. The Tide pulled in an average of almost 10 thousand Gottfried-haters every game, while last years SEC Champion Dawgs averaged 6700 and only broke 5 digits once in SEC play. Of course, this is also influenced by Alabama pulling things together under Pearson, while Georgia most definitely did not, and it could be the Bammer head counters often confuse empty seats with large handicapped women.

In case that blob of facts is too boring:

Dallas Cowboys Tight End Martellus Bennet gives you advice on how to ditch a girl at the movies.

Some Kentucky fan (accidently) commisions a unique cake version of the UK Wildcat Logo

Forgive me if you know this story; just skip to the next paragraph. Within a week of the Gottfried firing, Taylor posted a story on his relatively unknown blog, The Tide Times, that Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo had been offered the Alabama job and had the contract already drawn up for him waiting for his signature upon the end of the season. According to the article, Izzo (who is currently fucking up my bracket by taking down Kansas and number 1 overall seed Louisville), was supposedly tight-bros-from-way-back-when with Nick Saban. Taylor “reported” that they would go on recruiting trips together, play cards and even wife swap; you know, all that cool shit you do with your homies. The article started to get some attention from other blogs, and after Taylor called in to the Finebaum show, it really caught fire. Not that anyone really believed this bullshit; but Taylor was so goddamned persistent, Izzo’s name continually came up in the conversation, usually with a qualifier; for example, “Anderson seems like the smart hire, and then there’s always the possibility of Izzo. *curls up hand and makes a quick jerk-off motion*”

So now Taylor has to eat crow, right? Fuck that. Taylor instead writes up a half-assed apology where he hurls his supposed source from the Saban family right under the bus. Of course, this hasn’t stopped the ridicule. The vultures had been swarming, and now they’ve landed at the Tide Times to tear into Taylor. I’ve posted some of the bits below. I was also afraid that out of embarrassment Taylor may take down comments or just ban them completely.

“Um, Nick … it is “respective” … Folks with journalism backgrounds tend to spell all the words correctly.”

“They also don’t use such profounds words like “cuz”. Give it up Nick, you are just a fan who discovered how to use the internet and make a website.”

“I doubt that their problem is that they don’t like the site. It’s more likely that they’re offended that you’re holding yourself out as a journalist or someone who is somehow connected to the University of Alabama, when in fact you are a poorly- or under-educated 16-year-old using the Internet to post made-up “rumors.”"

“You, sir, are an idiot.”

“Take it easy, Champ. Why don’t you sit this next one out, stop talking for a while.”

“Yes, Nick. They reached an AGREEMENT IN PRINCIPLE. That is how things work in the real world. When you get your first job, doing, well, ANYTHING, you will find that out. Until then, enjoy the fleeting few seconds’ worth of the 15 minutes of “fame” your craziness brought.”

“It would be in your best interest to shut this site down now before you dig this hole any deeper.”

“I think I want to “redicule” you for not having a spell checker.”

“If you have one ounce of integrity you’ll shut down this “blog” immediately and show up at Finebaum’s studio wearing a clown suit on Monday.”

Nick’s response is awesome. Motherfucker lays out his academic and professional cred and then reveals he’s a goddamned Illuminati. Enlighten me, Nick:

I do have an associate degree in journalism… I do have connections to UA because I went there and was a former employee in the basketball office… Those who know me know that i am honest and I have credibility and that i know many people who view me as such that work for UA… I have sources and power at UA through my affiliation with FREEMASONRY…

Holy shit. I love the “…”. Infer what you will.

So, none of this is particularly witty, but I like a good display of venom. Taylor had pushed all-in on one story, it back fired and now we can rake him over the coals for it. Is it petty? Fuck yes. But this public humiliation serves a purpose. There’s no editorial board for blogs, no Standards and Practices. Nick Taylor is an example of what happens when you publish speculative rumor and bullshit and try to pass it off as legitimate journalism. You can get away with a lot more if you just don’t take yourself too fucking seriously.