Is this email about comments Saban made on the radio true?

This was a joke told off record to lighten the mood. Nick is trying to be friendly with the local media, and so he cracks a joke about our accents. He said nothing about us all being ditch diggers or blue collar, only this one guy.

I heard nothing condescending in his tone. It was clearly a joke intented to make the people laugh, not put us down.

 

I don't think he was trying to offend anyone or made the comment to demean a certain group of people. However, there are people out there that it did offend, like it or not. All I'm saying is that Saban should have simply thought about this before he said it.

Also, it was not off the record. All he said was you guys won't be able to put this on the thing. He never says this is "off the record"

 

I thought it was pretty funny. If the coonass really said that he is a funny guy. Anybody know the wherabouts of this ditch?

 

What do you suppose "not putting it on the thing" means?

He clearly meant that it should be off the record.

 

If anyone knows that the media is going to examine everything from every angle, Nick should know.

To the guy with the recorder wearing a badge, "not putting it on that thing" doesn't mean anything at all. If he didn't want it to be on the record, he should have simply said "this is off the record".

It's just like signing a contract. If you want something covered in a contract, you better state it clearly. You can't be vague in a contract nor can anyone speaking with the media. "Not putting it on that thing" is a very vague statement.

 

I wasn't there, but the muffled audio sounded to me like it was somebody with a tape recorder overhearing a private conversation. Maybe I'm wrong, but obviously it wasn't intended for public release. People just need to get over it. It wasn't that offensive and if you were honestly and truly offended, you need to grow some thicker skin. Some of you act like you've never told an off-color joke before.

 

I understand that it was joke and a kind of funny one at that. It's really not a big deal that he said a joke about coonasses or Louisiana people in general. The point is that there are people that it offended and he should have though about it before saying it.

I run a container business here in Alabama. I had a driver that got mad at another company's driver, walked in the scalehouse and popped off at the scale master. He made a comment about the driver and the driver happened to be black. The comment he made had absolutely nothing to do with the gentleman's race or color. However, when the lady called me, she was just so offended by his comment and couldn't believe he said it. It really wasn't a big deal but I still had to talk to my driver. I can't afford to have an employee running around and speaking whatever comes to his mind when he's mad. This is the same case with the comment from Saban. There was simply no need for it.

 

Those are two completely different situations though. Saban's comment obviously wasn't made out of anger, he was telling a joke to lighten the mood. Furthermore, he was acknowledging that he understands that people in Louisiana are pissed about his decision to coach at Alabama.

As for thinking about it before saying it - you're right, if he had set in the middle of a press conference on the record, he should've thought about it. But it was a private, off the record conversation that he obviously had no intention of having published. If I'm Mal Moore, I'm in no way worried that this is going to jeopardize the integrity of my program. There are a lot of other issues at Alabama that could do that just fine...

 

Yes it was off. You can see him walk down the podium to a group of reporters that get into a circle and just start talking. The news cameras were then told to go away and Nick started shootin the **** with those guys to establish a good relationship.

 

WTF, I find that truly offensive