re: Article: Bear Bryant drunk in New Orleans with Jackie Sherrill - 1976 Sugar Bowl

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I think Bear and Orgeron would actually get along splendidly.

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Agree. Neither were/are master scheme tacticians or game day tricksters, but both had players who respected them and most importantly they loved their state and knew the importance of embracing it and its people.

"Everyone knows Bear was a drunk", but what has that got to do with anything regarding his coaching career?

I just want Jackie Sherrill (besties with Johnny Majors) to answer one question: who drank more? Bear or Johnny?

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Everyone knows Bear was a drunk", but what has that got to do with anything regarding his coaching career?

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If you got rid of all the SEC coaches from the 60's,70's and 80's who were drunks, womanizers and cheaters there'd be nobody left.

Perhaps the classic, most iconic picture
of a drunk coach, was Auburn's Terry "Tater Tot" Bowden
feeling no pain at the Flora Bama Bar.
(appears to have been shot with a Polaroid Instant)

That pic of Bowden is awesome. Good for him.

True story.

Back in the early 1980s me, my dad, and a couple of other folks were on the way to the summer race at Talladega. We - like every other fan coming up from the south - stopped at the KFC that was on 77.

It's about 8:00 in the morning. We're getting out of the car to go in when I hear a very familiar voice say "Sonny, we're going to need more chicken," followed by a louder "SONNY THAT'S NOT ENOUGH CHICKEN!"

I look over and there's Sonny Smith saying "Get in and shut up Jim" as he pushed a beer-holding and apparently approaching if not already past drunk Jim Fyffe back inside a custom van.

It's been close to 40 years and I still can't see or listen to Sonny Smith without hearing Jim Fyffe's "SONNY THAT'S NOT ENOUGH CHICKEN" in my mind.

He'd get skewered for doing it now but at the time even as an Alabama fan I thought it was pretty cool that Auburn's head basketball coach and play by play guy went out, ate chicken, and got drunk (Smith didn't have a beer and didn't appear drunk) at NASCAR races like every other redneck.

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Neither were/are master scheme tacticians or game day tricksters,

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Actually, Bryant could be quite the trickster. 1973 was the first year we had what was known as "free substitution". Until 1973, you could only substitute two players on any play, including 4th down. That's why on FG attempts, you'd see the kicker and holder come onto the field and no one else. It's why you can see, in old 1971 Orange Bowl clips, John Hannah futilely trying to tackle Johnny Rodgers on his punt return TD.

Anyway, 1973 was the first year you could substitute en masse, but there was no rule that said a player coming onto the field had to actually participate. Opening game vs. Cal, opening series, Bama's drive stalls on the 2 yard line. Bryant sends his FG kicker onto the field. While the rest of the team is in the huddle, the kicker is placing his tee on his spot. The team breaks the huddle, the kicker picks up his tee and runs off, Bama catches Cal off guard, runs a play and scores.

Bryant used the rule to his advantage in another way the rest of the season by using injured QB Danny Ridgeway to run on the field to give the play to the QB and run back off. The rule was changed prior to the next season.

He also used a halfback throw-back pass to QB Richard Todd to score the go-ahead TD against Notre Dame in the 4th quarter of the 1973 Sugar Bowl, before Notre Dame scored the winning TD. You didn't see a lot of that back then.

Same season, 1973, he opens the Tennessee game with an 80 yard bomb on the first play of the game. Maybe not a trick play by today's standards, but this was a team that threw it less than ten times a game, and certainly not something you'd expect from Bryant.

So it's not like Bryant wasn't a trickster at all.

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If you got rid of all the SEC coaches from the 60's,70's and 80's who were drunks, womanizers and cheaters there'd be nobody left.

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True dat.

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I wasn't gonna say anything earlier this week out of respect, but Johnny Majors.....

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Same for another coach who recently passed away.
Those were different times, without cameras on every
square inch of earth and social media and sports site goobs like us, ready to take a shot if they hear somebody fart.

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I wasn't gonna say anything earlier this week out of respect, but Johnny Majors.....

Same for another coach who recently passed away.

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I've heard first-hand accounts of Johnny Majors still putting moves on women well into his seventies.