By Staff
Leada DeVAney, Hartselle Enquirer
I know what you're thinking. Sure, I'm a big college football fan and I bleed Alabama's crimson and white. Therefore, it would be natural to assume I am going to write this column about Dennis Franchione.
You're wrong. I'm absolutely not going to write about the man who looked us in the face and lied to us all.
There are a lot more important things going on in the world than that person who, after asking his team to "hold the rope," decided to jump ship.
It's Christmas time. There is world turmoil. United Nation Peacekeepers are in Iraq. There are homeless people in the United States. Right now, somewhere in the world, there is an earthquake, bus accident or mudslide.
So the underhanded, slimy way Dennis Franchione packed his bags and skedaddled out of Tuscaloosa isn't really important in the grand scheme of things.
Sure, I wrote him an e-mail at coachfran.com. I even quoted Bear Bryant for good measure.
And yes, I did write a couple of e-mails to the Texas A&M Board of Regents, mainly along the lines of "you will get yours one day."
I was polite, though. I didn't curse or threaten anything. I even took out the line about a wayward chicken truck propelling someone towards an untimely end. I thought that was taking things a little too far.
After all, this wasn't that big a deal – it was just a man changing jobs.
Sure, he looked at a bunch of 18 and 19-year-old kids and their parents and promised them the moon, only to deliver far less. And sure, he said earlier this week that his contract at Alabama was being worked out and that nothing had changed.
Really, it's no big deal.
It's not a matter of life or death. Alabama will not declare war on Texas just because they took our coach. I'm sure economic sanctions will work just as well.
There are a lot more important things we all need to be worrying about.
World peace.
Ending human suffering.
If the guy from "The Bachelor" will really marry that girl who wasn't from Alabama.
What we don't need to be worrying about is some short-time person who started believing his own press and decided that when the going got tough, the not-so-tough got going.
So I for one am not going to worry about it, much less devote an entire column to this situation.
Really.
PS – Just in case you're curious. Coach Bryant once said he didn't know what class was, but he could spot it a mile away. I simply informed Franchione that every Alabama fan can spot a lack of class, even three states away. I'm sure he's shaking in his boots.