I don’t usually write much anymore and when I do, they’re personal more so than reporting. There are enough folks out there reporting what happened, you don’t need to have me do a re-take on things for you.
So what this is about is for the fans to take a break and a deep breath before posting whiney comments about referees. I’ve played football, coached football, and reffed games and I can tell you from first-hand experience that 99,9% of the refs that call a game are doing their best. There is no game you could watch and not find something to complain about with a call or the lack of one. Not one, zilch. So take a breath and know that while no one is perfect they are trying to do their best and they usually even out over a game.
Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant once said that sometimes a bad call goes against you and some go for you, but it comes down to that one thing, then you probably didn’t deserve to win the game anyway.
Take Alabama’s last game against Auburn. Auburn folks were whining, “Look, he pushed off!” When Isiah Bond caught the game-winning catch, and if you look at that final moment, that may be true. But if you look at play just seconds before, he was clearly being held and a stretched jersey is clearly visible. Yet that was not called either. It sort of evened out.
Also on that play, there was a stupid fan who showed a replay of one of the two rushers and he said, “Look he’s being held, he’s still being held, he’s still being held. and the truth is this is just a stupid fan. It’s legal for a lineman to have his hands on a rusher’s shoulder pads to push him, that’s not holding to a dumb fan, it looks like it. Even the lineman in question of being held said there was no holding on that play, they didn’t need to, they had two men blocking him. But it still riled up a desperate and butt-hurt fan base who were also too stupid to know the proper blocking rules.
Bama fans, you are just as bad trying to counter one perceived bad call with another of your choice. No fan base has a monopoly on whining fans.
Now, moving on from bad calls to decisions made by the College Football Playoff Committee. Again, I don’t think there’s an agenda one way or the other. They have said their goal is not to pick the teams that deserved it, but simply the four best teams out there right now.
If I were an undefeated Florida State, I’d be devastated to be left out and replaced by a one-loss team. Same for any undefeated team. They made their case the best way they could, by winning them all!
Should Alabama be left out, yes, I’d hurt along with the rest of the fan base but I might understand, they didn’t take care of their business all season long. There’s a side to all arguments. There may not be a team that Las Vegas would favor to win the Championship over Alabama right now. But Las Vegas doesn’t get a vote. I’d have to take my own advice and take a deep breath.
Larry Burton is a semi-retired writer who has written for over 20 years and has been published in almost every leading media.
Alabama and the SEC 