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re: Apparently JFF was on Bourbon Street last weekend
Posted on 7/20/13 at 7:43 pm to Warfarer
Posted on 7/20/13 at 7:43 pm to Warfarer
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Imagine Joe Namath under the microscope of social media when he was running amuck.
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It is well-known that Namath was suspended toward the end of his junior year by legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant because of a violation of team rules.
Alabama had a bye week before its last regular-season game that season against the University of Miami. Namath planned to watch the Army-Navy football game on TV, but the game was pushed back a few weeks because of the assassination of President Kennedy. Instead, he spent an evening at a local diner where, admittedly, he had literally a few sips of beer. This was a clear violation of Coach Bryant's policy of no alcohol during the season. Bryant heard a rumor that Namath had been drinking over the weekend, so he approached his star quarterback and asked him if it was true. Namath admitted to the few sips of beer (while not mentioning that many of his teammates were drunk at an off-campus party that night).
According to Mark Kriegel's excellent book, Namath, after a short deliberation, Coach Bryant told Namath he could allow Namath to continue to play, but to do so would violate Bryant's principles, and the coach would have to resign. Instead, Coach Bryant decided to suspend Namath for the final regular-season game against Miami and for the upcoming Sugar Bowl.
What was so striking about all this was not so much Coach Bryant's decision to suspend Joe (which by today's standards would be absolutely draconian); it was Namath's reaction. As the news hit the wires that Joe Namath, star quarterback for the University of Alabama, was suspended for the remainder of the season, Namath spent the next several days living in Coach Bryant's basement, the guest of Coach Bryant's wife, so as to shield him from the media storm. He was actually living under the same roof as the man who just kicked him off the team. When Joe Scarborough brought the suspension up, Namath did something positively old-fashioned: he accepted responsibility for his actions. "I broke a training rule," he said.
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Posted on 7/20/13 at 7:50 pm to jatebe
And Kenny Stabler....
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Ken (The Snake) Stabler cut more classes than he went to. Ken Stabler cut baseball practice. Ken Stabler did not show up for a baseball game. Ken Stabler's collection of speeding tickets was one of the grandest in the South. Ken Stabler cut football practice. When all this evidence came floating across the desk of Paul (Bear) Bryant, the Alabama football coach and athletic director, Bryant cut Ken Stabler.
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This spring when he heard Bryant had sentenced Stabler, Namath sent Snake a wire: "He means it."
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Bryant meant it, all right, and thus began Stabler's long, hot summer. Stabler moved out of Paul W. Bryant Hall, where the athletes live, and into Paty Hall, where he did not want to live. He got a job (on his own) stacking freight for a trucking company. He enrolled in summer school and made up five credit hours—one more than necessary. He wanted to play for Alabama, and by mid-August he had convinced Bryant, who reinstated him.
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