ESPN showed an injury report "blurb" thing of- I'm assuming- what they thought were the top 3 notable ones (bc it was Lattimore, AJ, and one other), and next to AJ, it said he wasn't practicing but would play Saturday. *shrug*
Two things to note in my opinion.
In the years I've watched and listen to Saban he's never been one to hide injuries. He handles it now a lot like the NFL mandates teams handle their injury reports; doubtful, day to day meaning probable, and he'll play. The best source here is the man himself and specifically the first minutes of his press conferences on Monday.
Secondly, I was told Sunday night it was a deep bruise and he was extremely sore. There was a lot of speculation from some Monday because those observing the media time at practice didn't see him throwing. Tuesday they did but didn't see him throwing deep routes. So, based on that people started saying he wasn't throwing at all Monday and Tuesday had people saying he wasn't able to throw a deep ball.
All of that based on a few minutes of observation time by the media.
I'm not one of those guys who hates ESPN and bashes them at every given opportunity. At the same time I'm not going to pretend they don't make mistakes. They don't make
as many as CBS Sports, but it happens.
Honestly, even if we didn't have AJ this weekend I still think we'd pull this game out. It was be
CLOSE, but I believe Saban and staff would find a way.