Unless you've had your head in the sand, you're aware that North Carolina coach Roy Williams was in the stands at Monday night's championship game wearing a Kansas sticker. The former Kansas coach of 15 years was brave enough to sit in the stands with the same fans that booed him on Saturday night during the introductions.
You could probably search the Tar Heel message boards and find some fans upset with him, but for the most part I think fans will be fine with it. It got me to thinking, what if some other coaches did this?
So I spoke to one of the biggest Bama football fans I know. We talked about seeing Williams in the stands rooting for Kansas on Monday night. I asked him, what if Nick Saban had shown up with an LSU shirt on to watch an LSU game? Would you be OK with that?
His response. "Absolutely not!"
And I'm not surprised.
To be fair, there are some major differences here. Roy Williams was at Kansas for 15 years and North Carolina is his alma mater. Saban has had a history of moving around and Alabama is not his alma mater. Second, LSU is in the same conference as Alabama. They are quickly becoming rivals because of Saban's hiring. Kansas and UNC will only play in the tournament.
Still, there's an unspoken reason as to why Saban wouldn't get a pass. He has a history of not being at programs a long time. As much as he tells Alabama fans that he's staying
until he retires, his history tells them something different. Among Alabama fans, there is a slight fear that he'll leave and go somewhere else someday. And they'll be stuck with another coach like Mike Shula
Williams on the other hand, he's shown to be pretty loyal. Plus, North Carolina fans know that a coach is not leaving the Tar Heel program to go anywhere else.
Also, there are those Alabama fans who would foolishly say, "I didn't see the Bear going to watch anyone else play." Implying that what the Bear did was Gospel. (Uh,oh this site was just shut down in Tuscaloosa.)
While we're speculating, how do you think Michigan fans would feel if Rich Rodriguez were to attend a West Virginia game one day? Don't think it's possible? Ask Kansas fans if they would ever imagine Roy Williams being in the stands with a Kansas sticker on.
Roy Williams Gets a Pass, Would Saban?
at 4/09/2008 12:00:00 PMThis entry was posted on 4/09/2008 12:00:00 PM and is filed under college basketball, college football . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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1 comments:
Was the Rich Rod comment an intentional effort to bate me? Well, it worked. It's a good question. I don't think I would have problem, so long as it wasn't next week. Considering the messy fallout from his departure I'd say they need a cooling off period and Michigan fans need to see him create and leave a little space for a while. However, after a year or two... I don't think it be a big deal for much the same reasons the Roy situation is acceptable. The guy's home school is involved so you get a little grace where others might not.
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