You can read my Auburn blog entries at http://blog.al.com/tigerscorner

First, my background. I was a lukewarm Tuberville supporter. I didn’t cry when he resigned. I wouldn’t have been upset if he had not been forced out. I was willing to wait and see one more year.

I also was a supporter of hiring Turner Gill, the head coach at Buffalo.

And my first reaction when hearing Gene Chizik’s name was shock and surprise, and honestly, disappointment.

So a few things. First, one of two things has happened today. Either Auburn University has been exposed as a clique of old racists who would rather hire anyone than a black man with a white wife, or the national media and state media have unfairly dragged Auburn through the mud with relentless fury, based solely on rumor and speculation. Neither of these are particularly good things.

Two ‘unnamed’ coaches in the SEC… not at Auburn… in the SEC.. told an ESPN reporter that Turner Gill wouldn’t get the job because he had a white wife. Now, neither coach will come out and man up to the statements. We don’t know if they’re any more true than any other ‘inside information’ that has proven to be wrong over the last few weeks.

Yet Auburn is taking a huge beating from everyone with a keyboard. Charles Barkley is screaming. Auburn is being hung out to dry, and nobody really knows if the anonymous allegations are true.

If they are, it’s disgusting. I don’t want my school to be run that way. But if they aren’t, then this is a witch hunt of monumental proportions and the drama happy media ought to be ashamed for ambulance chasing this way. This is a school that many of us love and want to be successful both on and off the field. And it hurts to see this happening today…

Next, I think this is a huge setback to the cause of minority coaches getting opportunities to coach. Follow me. Tennessee never picks up the phone to even talk to a black candidate. They hire an unproven coach. Barely a whisper. Mississippi State keeps their search super quiet. As far as we know, no phone call to a black candidate. They pick Dan Mullen, with zero head coaching experience. Nobody even raises a finger.

And then Auburn conducts their interview pretty much like any business in the United States conducts this type of interview. And they interview 2 minority candidates out of 8, and by all accounts 1 of them was a very serious candidate for the job. And then they choose, which is their right, to go in a different direction. And Auburn is completely roasted for this.

Now, you’re at an SEC school and you fire your coach next year. Which route are you going to take? The route that includes minority candidates receiving serious interviews or the route that keeps your school’s name out of the papers? I think this is very damaging, and it has nothing to do with Turner Gill. If you know going in that if you interview a black coach, but will get killed if you don’t hire him, then how seriously will you entertain scheduling the interview?

Which brings me to my next point. Those that believe this is racism are using the following logic. Auburn interviewed Gill, and then they picked Chizik. Gill is obviously more qualified than Chizik. Therefore this is racism.

Really now? So Charles Barkley and the folks at ESPN are both Athletic Directors? Funny, because I thought they were media, not administrators.

What makes Gill more qualified? That he’s a hotter name right now? That he won the MAC championship? What makes Chizik less qualified? That he had a bad season at Iowa State? That he hadn’t been mentioned much lately? What’s so obvious about the differences in their qualifications?

Gill won 7 games in his first two years. Chizik 5. Both inherited struggling programs. Both had to recruit and build. Gill won 8 in his 3rd year. Chizik didn’t have a third year and started 11 freshmen this year. Are they really that different? Without knowing each man, or perhaps interviewing each man, as Auburn did, can we really say that one is obviously better than the other? If so perhaps you can be Auburn’s next AD..

If you want Steve Spurrier or Houston Nutt or some other SEC tested coach and think that Chizik is a stupid choice, fine. But don’t use 5-19 as an excuse for racism because Gill is ‘obviously more qualified’ because that one just isn’t true as we see it at this point in time. And I was a Gill supporter until the hire was made.

And finally I will say this. Despite what I see as some unfair treatment especially in the media, I do feel like we missed an opportunity. I think Turner was a good candidate for the job, and that his presence at Auburn would be something that the Auburn family could rally around and be proud of. This would have been a very happy day for a lot of us. In the same way I lauded Obama’s election, the Auburn family rallying around him would have been a beautiful sight. And I believe he would have been a candidate that would stir the imaginations of young kids in the state and likely change the way our state is perceived and definitely the way Auburn is perceived.

But Jay Jacobs, for whatever reason, felt that Gene Chizik was going to win more football games and produce better student athletes. If he’s right, then that’s great. If he’s wrong, I will definitely carry the sadness of this day with me, and not just because we didn’t win some football games.

However… there’s one person who really isn’t at fault here, and that’s Gene Chizik. Loved or hated, this is a man who wants so badly to be here and to be coaching here. I will give him my support. I will root for him and cheer for him and I will be proud of him. I really hope he does a wonderful job. I really hope that he puts us in a position to compete for titles, and to have kids who are NFL prospects, or prospects in another profession because they have gotten their education. I definitely think people are getting lost in the controversy, and they’re totally dumping on a man who only took, by what all accounts, is his dream job. And that’s cool, and he has a great story. And so I welcome and wish him the best.

I hope what I have said has made sense. I spent a lot of time today thinking about it. And always, and forever, War Eagle!

Ok back to your regularly scheduled Monday morning..

Up 3 games to 1, the Rays had a 7-0 lead in game 5 in the 7th inning. The series was over. The celebration was starting. There was only one problem.

This was the Red Sox. They have ripped my heart out before, and now I must watch as they likely rip out Tampa’s heart too…

Here’s the thing about Boston. They’re like an old fighter. They’ve been in the ring a thousand times. They show up for the fight against the young kid. The kid is confident, thinking he’s the next big thing.

They juke and jab for a few rounds, the kid landing nice punches and building a lead on the scorecard, finally a significant one. All the announcers are talking about a changing of the guard, new blood taking over, the crowd is in a frenzy.

And just when everyone relaxes a little, the old veteran throws a punch. The kind of punch that staggers the kid, in fact so much so that it completely changes the fight. The kid may still be ahead, but his capacity to continue to wage the battle has been severely limited. He’s so staggered that he actually loses his confidence at that moment, and goes on the defensive, just trying to protect himself from getting hit that way again. His offense is gone. He’s a shell of the fighter he was 10 seconds before, and it’s a matter of time before the old veteran finds a way to knock him out.

That was the last 3 innings of game 5, a 7 run comeback, a win in extra innings, the body blow that has the Rays utterly staggered. Before you know it, your 3-1 lead is 3-3, and you’re looking at an all or nothing and not quite sure where you are.

Joe Maddon, the Rays manager, isn’t throwing in any towels, and neither are the players, but you have to wonder, given Boston’s history and the punch they threw in game 5, can the Rays recover in time to have anything to say about game 7? If they do it will be a very impressive feat, one that will define them as a great team. If they don’t, they’ll just be the next one in line to take on the pesky old boxer, and have their moment in the sun, before remembering why this old boxer has KO’d kids so consistently over the years… the hard way.

We will miss you. Thanks for your performances and your efforts. And thank you for representing the city of Cleveland and being an Indian, not just a guy who happened to pitch for us. I hope things go well for you in Milwaukee. I don’t know if it had to go down this way or not, and potentially if the guys we got in return play well I’ll look at this differently one day.

But today I am pretty sad…

Goodbye C.C.!

There was a big part of me that turned the TV off disappointed last night. Somehow a little hollow, empty, unfulfilled.

You see, the Patriots were supposed to win. We were all supposed to witness history. For a life long football fan, it was a once in a lifetime greatness, that was to be complete in Arizona at the Super Bowl. We’d all been counting it down for weeks. And here it was.

But something really interesting happened, and as the evening wore into the night, and the night into morning it began to come into focus for me more clearly.

One team had it all… another only seemed to have each other.
One team felt a sense of entitlement. another just wanted to win.
One team had all the commercials, the press, the hype. Another lost six games.. but never gave up.
One team was bloated with pride, and another was hungry for an opportunity to shine.

And the more I thought about it, and considered everything, the more I realized that I hadn’t been robbed of anything historic, or beautiful… that the history and beauty were magnified by what the New York Giants were able to accomplish.

And then I saw the parallel and understood why it was coming so much more clearly into focus. It is written throughout the Scripture that God opposes the proud, and gives grace to the humble. And as the image of Bill Belichick gruffly running off the field early, and Plaxico Burress crying and thanking God went through my mind, I saw that picture in this game and it was beautiful…

I don’t mean to say that God wanted the Giants to win. I only mean to say that the way the game played out touched my heart on a level that reminded me that God wants a soft heart, not a prideful, conceited, boastful heart. I think it’s very possible that the Patriots were defeated, not only by the Giants, but by buying into the hype that they couldn’t be beaten and that they were entitled to their status as the greatest team ever. After the loss, you could see the shock, and bewilderment.. almost like they didn’t realize it was happening. It was almost like they were waiting for another chance. The referee adding a couple of minutes, or calling a do-over and allowing them to play the game again. I could feel it too, sitting on my couch. It was really kind of troubling.

Then finally, I figured out what it was that troubled me so much about watching that moment… it was judgment day.

I pray that those of us who are living in the pride of our own talents, our own desires, our own drives, loving the works of our hands more than the One who gave our hands to us and feeling entitled to the successes that this world has to offer don’t one day have a Super Bowl 42 moment… that moment when all the things you did, all the money you made, all the great things that were said about you and all the useless stuff you accumulated all melt away. And then you realize that the chips are down, and you have missed something very, very vital… but now the clock reads zeroes, and you’re staring, like a deer in the headlights, into darkness. And you don’t get to play the game again.

Please God.. let this happen to nobody that reads my blog and calls me a friend…

It all started yesterday when I was released from work for the holidays early. Yay! Thank you work! So I’ve really been wanting this book, Advanced Marathoning by Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas. And I really wanted to study it over the weekend as I am getting ready to start the lead up to Boston. Or am I??? Ha Ha.. Anyway, the closest place with the book was… yes, the Summit.

So I had two hours to get from work, to the Summit, and back to Hoover for dinner before heading to the Alabama Theatre with the fam to see Christmas Vacation. I figured.. no problem right?? And it wasn’t. Until I made the fateful turn into the Summit, just as I realized that there was a strange backed up exodus leaving that place, and that cars were backed up everywhere.

So.. about 70 minutes later (counting about 3 minutes inside the store), I was finally in the clear on I-459. And might I add with my book in hand, as well as the book about Jim Elliot I’ve been looking for, yes!

Every year when I go to see Christmas Vacation I forget they don’t take cash. Every year. So this year I wasn’t forgetting… but traffic was so Christmased that I decided I’d stop by Academy Sports in the mall I was heading to for dinner, because I knew I could use the debit card there. Turns out while I was there I browsed the clearance rack and found a New Balance singlet for $2.88. I may not be able to use it until March (who am I kidding, sure I’ll run in 70 degree weather sometime in the next 30 days. This is Alabama.) But nonetheless, good running gear on the cheap!

On to dinner, a huge piece of fish and on to the Alabama with my uncle and aunt, cousin, brother and sister in law.

What do I need to say about that? AWESOME! The Alabama is just great, the pipe organ is awesome, I love sing along, and Christmas Vacation with 1000 of your closest friends? Priceless. :-)

So I went to bed exhausted, and woke up ready to run. The plan was 10 miles, 7:30 per mile, on what I figured to be a tough course that Meredith drew up for Mercedes training. And my my it was a tough course! But I’m thankful because it’s a pretty good Boston prep route. I may even tweak the design for some longer runs. So that worked out really well.. Here it is if you’re just dying to see my results. :-)

Saturday Run Oh and the elevation profile is mostly accurate on that.. Yep..

So then it was back home and on to the PapaJohns.com Bowl. Got tickets from work (Kudos #2 to work in this blog post!) and Brad and I went. We sat in 4 different places, watching the second half from amazingly good seats we pilfered. The game was entertaining, the fans from both schools were awesome, the crowd was decent, and I had pizza. I was really glad I went. Although I didn’t get overtime (The joke is I am always rooting for overtime, and trying to devise scenarios that would cause overtime) the game was still good. The QB for Cincinnati, Ben Mauk, should perhaps change his name to Ben Houdini, because he escaped sacks on like 20 plays to complete passes. Fun team to watch and a well deserved win.

The only downside… COOOLLD. Yeah I know other places have real cold.. but we were all expecting mid 60s. What we got was barely 50, cloudy, kinda damp with a little mist at times, and the wind blowing. By the 4th quarter I was pretty well freezing, so much so that the bathroom being heated became a source of great joy to all the men as we went in after the game. Funny to hear 100 men walking into a dilapidated stadium bathroom and expressing honest joy about doing it. Ha Ha!

So I came home (which took like 10 minutes, great stuff!!) took a short nap, ate dinner, and read about how to become a better marathoner. The verdict? Oh, a lot of things I already know. Like some runs I do too slow. And many actually too fast. I stumbled upon one principle, which is introducing speedwork late in the program, which I did by chance last time and seemed to work well. And I was reminded I could probably treat my nutrition a little different.

So the last 48 hours or so have just been a blast! Not sure how much I will post over the weekend, but if I don’t, have a very Merry Christmas and remember the reason we do all this stuff. Easy to forget as you’re tearing into some wrapping paper, stuffing yourself, having the usual family stress time and all those holiday things. We give because He gave. It’s a cool symbol if we see it the right way.

- Wow on Roger Clemens. The investigators went out of their way to be very detailed. If it’s true he didn’t dope, then there was an awful lot of lying going on. Clemens’ section is very damning and will tarnish his image forever. It’s really sad. The worst part is, looking back on his career path and reading this report, you can kinda see from the swings in his performance when this might have occurred.

- Very interesting section on Eric Gagne, in which a Boston scout’s assessment of him basically says he is roiding up about a year ago… and yet Boston still traded 3 prospects for him and now Milwaukee is paying him $10 mil. The evidence with the Dodger links was quite strong too with many canceled checks and shipping labels that were taken from the main witness’s home.

- Other than the Radomski and McNamee names, the rest is a big yawn honestly.

- I think the suggestion of an investigative committee is a great idea. The fact is you will always be behind the curve, people will always be evading the tests. Then people can say ‘I never failed a test’ and continue doing the next thing to evade while they juice up. It’s no different than airport screening. Yes, you may make a stop there… but it’s more effective using investigative techniques to catch the people while they’re making the bombs… in this case, you have a team to investigate and track down users, and interface with law enforcement. Maybe the most important piece of smart that comes out of the 400+ pages of the report. Also, independent testing is a must, and the investigative group needs scientists on their team as well.

- Definitely some sketchy names, that really didn’t have enough evidence to be ruined by being named. Download the report and look at Brian Roberts. He had lunch with a guy, used to live with a guy, and had a conversation with a guy where he admitted to trying them twice. The evidence on Gagne, LoDuca, Clemens, etc. is strong, but this was not even close to that. If you didn’t have a canceled check, at least some detailed testimony by the source would have been helpful before ruining a career.

I hope this is the beginning of the end of this. Baseball and the players union have to get over their bruised feelings toward each other, and get done some of these recommendations. Too important to the game not to. The eye has been blind long enough. I’m in favor of granting all players amnesty starting today, implementing the fixes suggested by the report, admitting as a sport that mistakes were made, and move on.

I doubt that is what will happen. But you can always hope!

Great game. It’s definitely a special time to be able to win six straight over your biggest rival. I’m very excited for the players and coaches and for all of us who bleed orange and blue. It’s great to be an Auburn Tiger!!

17 miles in the morning and I’m up wayyy too late. Got to watch the game with my dad and my brother.. maybe drank a little too much wine.. watched dad sing karaoke, went shopping with my bro and uncle, and ran a nice 5K around a track this morning, 19:25 for 3.17 miles actually. I was quite impressed with myself. All in all it was a really great day.

Tomorrow I’m looking forward to becoming a member at Brook Hills, hopefully surviving my run and maybe even doing well, and watching a little more football with my bro.

War Eagle!