I must share a story here.
Shula made an appearance at my Red Elephant Club within his first year or two. I was so pumped to meet him since he was only the second Bama HC I had ever met to that point, the first being Fran
. Unlike Fran though, Shula didn’t allow a group Q&A session, was soft spoken, seemed uncomfortable as the center of attention, and was consequently unapproachable, although not in a mean way. So I remember being badly let down with Shula
the man before I ever felt let down by Shula
the coach.
Anyway, fast forward a year or two, when Kines visited our club. Complete opposite personality, jovial, loud, engaging, etc. It was during the 2006 season, sometime between the UF game and Shula’s firing. After he addressed us, he gladly took questions before leaving the podium. Now here I am, a young man, just happy to be there with my father and other respected members of the community, ecstatic to have an opportunity to ask a Bama Assistant HC and DC a question about Xs and Os. And despite being nervous, I was encouraged by Kines’ friendly, unassuming energy to go ahead and raise my hand and ask him the following question (this is darn close to verbatim):
“Coach, in the Florida game, we surrendered a critical TD when Tebow ran a QB sneak off guard. We know Tebow’s a big guy and often keeps the ball in these short yardage situations. However on the play we only had 3 down linemen despite Florida snapping it inside our 5 yard line. I gotta ask, was that on purpose, or did our players not line up correctly? I would have expected us to have more bodies lined up across from the Florida OL.”
His demeanor immediately changed and became a different person. In front of everyone, he loudly barks back at me, “I made that call! You have a problem with it?!” Stunned and intimidated I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. He doubles down and repeats himself even louder, “I made that call! Do YOU have a problem with it?!” I just look around in astonishment, first at my father and then to others with a look that conveys, “WTF?!”
Panicked the club President interjected and ended the Q&A. Kines soon departed while we all finished our prime rib dinner in awkward silence.
Needless to say, when Kines later melted down on national TV after asked a similar type question at halftime about stopping Ok St’s offense, I’m sorry to say I felt no pity for him. For he had already nearly crushed the spirit of this young Bama fan, whose only crime was being curious about how we had lined up for a critical play in a game.
So yeah, long story short, I don’t like him because he tried to bully and intimidate me, in front of Bama boosters of all places.
Ah I feel better getting that off my chest…
