On Friday morning, three hours or so before kick off I was running errands and heard Eli on the radio doing an interview with Tom Roberts. Eli was pushing his book "From Peanut Stand to Broadcast Booth" (or something like that). Tom asked Eli about his most unusual experience as an Alabama broadcaster. Eli said that it happened during the Stallings era.
They were doing the weekly coaches call in show from one of the restaurants in Tuscaloosa, with 75 or so there in person, plus the radio audience. Alabama had just announced that after many years of using Russell for their uniforms they were switching to Nike. A caller wanted to know why Bama was taking this contract away from an Alabama based firm.
Coach allowed as how Nike had really offered a lot more money than Russell had, and to make his point he put his hand where the Nike logo goes on an athletic shirt and said "If they are going to pay us this much money we'll wear their " and then he momemntarily forgot the name of the Nike emblem. Finally he said "swastika". Eli said he did what any good broadcaster would do, and went to a commercial. He tried to talk to CGS during the break and Stallings still hadn't realized what he had said. Eli said he told them "all our Jewish listeners are going to be mad at you." Stallings then blushed and said surely everyone knew he really didn't mean that, but he went back on the air and corrected his error.
On his broadcast partners: he enjoyed working with Doug Layton, but they were too much alike, both broadcasters with no background as a player, so they sort of echoed each other. On Kenny Stabler and Phil Savage: he loved having a player/coach with detailed knowledge of the game beside him, he could call the game and the other guy could explain what had happened.
Asked if he had heard from Stabler, he said Kenny had come to one of the home games this year and he'd tried to get him to come to the booth, but Kenny wouldn't reply to calls or texts. He also said something I was not aware of: The U of A had asked Snake to come back to the booth after the legal issues were resolved, even begged him to, but Kenny decided to move on.
They were doing the weekly coaches call in show from one of the restaurants in Tuscaloosa, with 75 or so there in person, plus the radio audience. Alabama had just announced that after many years of using Russell for their uniforms they were switching to Nike. A caller wanted to know why Bama was taking this contract away from an Alabama based firm.
Coach allowed as how Nike had really offered a lot more money than Russell had, and to make his point he put his hand where the Nike logo goes on an athletic shirt and said "If they are going to pay us this much money we'll wear their " and then he momemntarily forgot the name of the Nike emblem. Finally he said "swastika". Eli said he did what any good broadcaster would do, and went to a commercial. He tried to talk to CGS during the break and Stallings still hadn't realized what he had said. Eli said he told them "all our Jewish listeners are going to be mad at you." Stallings then blushed and said surely everyone knew he really didn't mean that, but he went back on the air and corrected his error.
On his broadcast partners: he enjoyed working with Doug Layton, but they were too much alike, both broadcasters with no background as a player, so they sort of echoed each other. On Kenny Stabler and Phil Savage: he loved having a player/coach with detailed knowledge of the game beside him, he could call the game and the other guy could explain what had happened.
Asked if he had heard from Stabler, he said Kenny had come to one of the home games this year and he'd tried to get him to come to the booth, but Kenny wouldn't reply to calls or texts. He also said something I was not aware of: The U of A had asked Snake to come back to the booth after the legal issues were resolved, even begged him to, but Kenny decided to move on.
