An Open letter to Coach Saban

Coach Saban,

First of all, thanks for all you do for the University of Alabama, both on and off the field. Words cannot express how much it means to Bama Nation the good you do in all walks of life.

And I get it, I really do. If reporters badgered me incessantly about the same subject for months on end after having been told you aren't going to give them an answer, I'd be tired of it, too and might snap too. And we Bama fans know how much you hate the media and many of us understand why, poking and digging, just trying to find dirt most of the time. Coach Bryant hated them too and treated them similar to how you usually do. But he did it in a different era, when perception wasn't reality and political correctness didn't rule.

I think just about all of Bama Nation knows you aren't some mean, heartless SOB that is just an a-hole 24/7. You have a good relationship with your players and with the fans and I've never heard any different from those groups. But with the media, man, you've just gotta stop. You don't have to like them. You don't even have to oblige them. But you can't abuse them either. It just doesn't work in today's climate.
They should be badgering someone like Urban Myer about why he had a murderer on his team at Florida or why he has harbored a wife beater and a nut job on his staff for years. But they don't, because Myer smartly plays coy and dummies up when they start asking the hard questions. He doesn't know or he forgot. But they come after Nick Saban because they know they can get a rise out of him every time and maybe he'll say something he shouldn't this time.

Lord knows you should have earned some respect and deserve some from them, but you won't get it. And what you are doing, going off on them time and again, is incredibly stupid and incredibly dangerous. You're smarter than that. Don't give them the satisfaction, and more importantly, don't give them the ammunition or the grudge to use against you. You have to know such behavior is being used against you both in the newsrooms and the living rooms across the country. We're behind you and we support you, but we also want you to not be baited into a bad situation.
Just don't give them an answer at all. It's safer and better for all of us, including you. We want you around for a long time.

Kudos for the public apology, I figured it was coming because you really are a decent man, but you can bet your arse the apology won't get the coverage or the discussion that the rant got.

Roll Tide!