After no reporter asked Alabama football head coach Nick Saban about the status of Cam Robinson and Hootie Jones (arrested on drug and weapons charges in Louisiana in May, which district attorney Jerry Jones then dropped, saying that they’d been out working and sweating while others were in the air-conditioning) during his SEC Media Days press conference Wednesday and ESPN’s Dari Nowkhah’s off-TV comment that Saban “owned the media” was broadcast on the SEC Network, Saban had a confrontational conversation with Paul Finebaum and the others on the SEC Network set—and then continued to confront Finebaum off the air. Here’s the video of the on-air confrontation:
Did Paul @Finebaum strike a nerve with Nick Saban on the Cam Robinson situation? Watch:https://t.co/BySCqTJbB2
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) July 13, 2016
Here’s the transcription of the on-air back and forth between Finebaum and Saban, from Chris Vannini at Coaching Search:
Saban: “I don’t really care to answer the critics, because I’m going to do what’s right for the players. If the players really did anything that wrong, they would have gotten charged with something.”
Finebaum: “That’s debatable, if you listen to what the district attorney said, an unintelligent response.”
Saban: “The district attorney didn’t say what all was — there were four people in the car. Why did the two football players get arrested and the other guys not get arrested? There’s no law about concealed weapons in Louisiana. Why did they search the car just because there was a gun on the seat?”
Finebaum: “Do you think they were persecuting the football (players)?”
Saban: “There’s just a lot of questions there that are reasons there weren’t charges brought against these guys. Now, do we condone the behavior? No. But you’re innocent until proven guilty in this country, regardless if you get convicted in the media or not, which is what you’re doing to these players.”
Finebaum: “I’m just asking why you’re not going to suspend Cam Robinson for the Southern Cal game.”
Saban: “Because I’m not going to convict him in the public. You said I was going to get criticized by you and the public and the media because I’m not going to suspend him, and I don’t really care about that. That’s the end of the conversation.”
The conversation then turned to other matters, but when the network went to break, Saban continued to confront Finebaum. Here’s Michael Casagrande’s description of that, from AL.com:
Within earshot of media, Saban launched into a four-letter tirade directed at Finebaum. In it, he used his fingers to note the small amount of marijuana found in the car and insinuated the arresting officers were disgruntled LSU fans. Finebaum later confirmed the account on his national radio/television show.
It ended with a few laughs from everyone on set as Saban exited.
Finebaum also confirmed Saban’s accusation of the police as LSU fans to Ross Dellenger of The Advocate:
“He indicated that the police were LSU fans, yeah,” Finebaum told The Advocate. “I think that’s accurate.”
AL.com has video of this, too, but you can’t really hear much:
Still, it’s certainly notable to see a prominent coach arguing with a prominent media personality this way in full view of tons of reporters. Saban and Finebaum clearly have very different views of how Alabama has handled the Robinson and Jones situation, and that at least made for some interesting TV Wednesday.
[Deadspin]
