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Gallion goes over edge suggesting no UT-Tide game
Monday, August 02, 2004
Tommy Gallion goes over the top better than Bo Jackson. But this time, he's gone too far.
Cancel the Alabama-Tennessee game?
Now them's fighting words.
It's the most outrageous idea yet from Gallion, and he's the same guy who said he'd rather live in Saddam Hussein's Iraq than coach in the NCAA.
Just because the Montgomery attorney, with a helping of facts and a generous topping of hyperbole, has whipped both states into a frenzy is no reason to deprive us of 60 minutes or more of clean, old-fashioned hate.
Alabama and Tennessee have played during the Great Depression and World War II. There's no reason they can't play during Ronnie Cottrell v. the NCAA, et al.
The Alabama-Tennessee game has survived Santonio Beard and Fred Weary and other players who crossed the state line to play for the other side. It's even survived Eric Locke, who crossed the line more than once.
It'll survive Gallion and Fulmer.
It's true that "matters" between Alabama and Tennessee "have erupted," as Gallion wrote in his July 23 letter to SEC Commissioner Mike Slive. That letter contained Gallion's suggestion that Slive "seriously consider canceling the Tennessee-Alabama football game this fall."
Gallion said he doesn't want blood on his hands if things get out of hand in the stands. Not to worry. Tennessee already has come out in favor of security.
Everything won't be settled on the field Oct. 23 in Knoxville because the legal matter between Gallion and Fulmer has nothing to do with any of the current players and most of the current coaches on both sides.
Alabama can win the game, and Gallion still might lose his case.
It's also true, as Gallion wrote, that there are "ill feelings between the two schools at this time" and those feelings are of "high intensity."
But the passion isn't between the schools as much as the fans. Their feelings, inflamed by Fulmer's detective work and Gallion's rhetoric, have risen to Fahrenheit 9/11 levels.
Long ago, the Tennessee game was bigger than the Auburn game to Alabama fans. When we go gray, we can say the Alabama-Tennessee rivalry at the turn of the century made Alabama-Auburn look like a tickle fight.
The animosity between the players on the field isn't any greater than usual. Tennessee linebacker Kevin Burnett said he's never heard of Gallion. Alabama lineman Wesley Britt said the game is the thing that matters to him.
"I don't think it gets any bigger than the Alabama-Tennessee game," Britt said. "I don't know how much more it could escalate."
It's hard to have a rivalry with any intensity when one team has won eight of the last nine, but Fulmer's obsession with Alabama has fanned the flames.
Why would a coach go to such lengths to dig up and throw dirt on a program he's buried on the field? People asked a similar question about Nixon and Watergate.
Of course, back in the spring and summer of 2000, when Fulmer was getting cozy with an NCAA investigator and a secret witness, Alabama was coming off an SEC title.
Alabama hasn't won another one since. But neither has Tennessee.
Monday, August 02, 2004
Tommy Gallion goes over the top better than Bo Jackson. But this time, he's gone too far.
Cancel the Alabama-Tennessee game?
Now them's fighting words.
It's the most outrageous idea yet from Gallion, and he's the same guy who said he'd rather live in Saddam Hussein's Iraq than coach in the NCAA.
Just because the Montgomery attorney, with a helping of facts and a generous topping of hyperbole, has whipped both states into a frenzy is no reason to deprive us of 60 minutes or more of clean, old-fashioned hate.
Alabama and Tennessee have played during the Great Depression and World War II. There's no reason they can't play during Ronnie Cottrell v. the NCAA, et al.
The Alabama-Tennessee game has survived Santonio Beard and Fred Weary and other players who crossed the state line to play for the other side. It's even survived Eric Locke, who crossed the line more than once.
It'll survive Gallion and Fulmer.
It's true that "matters" between Alabama and Tennessee "have erupted," as Gallion wrote in his July 23 letter to SEC Commissioner Mike Slive. That letter contained Gallion's suggestion that Slive "seriously consider canceling the Tennessee-Alabama football game this fall."
Gallion said he doesn't want blood on his hands if things get out of hand in the stands. Not to worry. Tennessee already has come out in favor of security.
Everything won't be settled on the field Oct. 23 in Knoxville because the legal matter between Gallion and Fulmer has nothing to do with any of the current players and most of the current coaches on both sides.
Alabama can win the game, and Gallion still might lose his case.
It's also true, as Gallion wrote, that there are "ill feelings between the two schools at this time" and those feelings are of "high intensity."
But the passion isn't between the schools as much as the fans. Their feelings, inflamed by Fulmer's detective work and Gallion's rhetoric, have risen to Fahrenheit 9/11 levels.
Long ago, the Tennessee game was bigger than the Auburn game to Alabama fans. When we go gray, we can say the Alabama-Tennessee rivalry at the turn of the century made Alabama-Auburn look like a tickle fight.
The animosity between the players on the field isn't any greater than usual. Tennessee linebacker Kevin Burnett said he's never heard of Gallion. Alabama lineman Wesley Britt said the game is the thing that matters to him.
"I don't think it gets any bigger than the Alabama-Tennessee game," Britt said. "I don't know how much more it could escalate."
It's hard to have a rivalry with any intensity when one team has won eight of the last nine, but Fulmer's obsession with Alabama has fanned the flames.
Why would a coach go to such lengths to dig up and throw dirt on a program he's buried on the field? People asked a similar question about Nixon and Watergate.
Of course, back in the spring and summer of 2000, when Fulmer was getting cozy with an NCAA investigator and a secret witness, Alabama was coming off an SEC title.
Alabama hasn't won another one since. But neither has Tennessee.
