"i'm not going to be the alabama coach."
(nick saban is the devil)
(a letter to a liar from a liar)
(if i seem a little taller, don't worry. i am just standing on my soapbox.)


i am having a hard time wrapping my head around all the nick saban bashing that seems to be happening outside of this state. i'll grant you that my take on this is seen through crimson and white glasses, but let's be serious. who here has never said one thing only to turn around and do something else? who here has not lied? who here is so morally beyond reproach that they can call into question someone's integrity without first questioning their own?

espn? come on now, guys. "the liar's club"? don shula? just because your son was horrible and you weren't good enough to win dan marino a super bowl doesn't mean you have to bash the guy that left the dolphins better off than he found it. sure, this was supposed to be the dolphins' "breakthrough year", but they didn't have a fucking quarterback!!! ronnie brown was hurt for half the season! settle down, old man, settle! sure, you went 17-0. that was 34 fucking years ago!!! you sucked for how long after that? give me a break.

let me give you a personal example of something that i, myself, went through. shortly after christmas last year, a key member of common ground church in huntsville quit our team. looking back, i now know that from that point forward my heart was no longer in huntsville with common ground. maybe it never truly was. maybe i was looking for an excuse to get back to birmingham because by going to huntsville i had found the reason that i never should've left. whatever it was, i knew where i would end up, at the very latest at the end of sarah's internship in august, would be birmingham. but here's where my analogy ties in with saban. that my heart wasn't in it did not change, in even the smallest fucking way, my commitment to common ground. i respected our effort. i respected chris too much to back away then.

"mr. o'kelley, there are rumors that you are going back to birmingham."
"i am not going back. our job here isn't done."
"mr. o'kelley, we have sources that tell us you have shown interest in managing a pet supplies "plus" back in huffman."
"i have no idea where that came from. i don't even like MY pets. why would i want to help run a pet store."
"so, you are staying with common ground and coldstone."
"I AM NOT GOING BACK TO BIRMINGHAM."

well, it turns out i came back to birmingham. my heart was here. it always was. but my commitment was in huntsville. does that mean i lied to myself? to others? maybe. maybe not. just depends on how you choose to report it. i don't think so. i think a person can be fully "committed" to some direction, to some job, to some idea and have their heart eventually pull them elsewhere. and i believe this is, in some way, what happened to nick saban. he was so fully "committed", in mind and body, to his team and his owner that he would not even entertain the thought of going to alabama. but his heart would.

we are all liars, people. to one degree or another. if you've ever told someone you'd call them and didn't follow up, that counts. if you cheated on a paper or test, that counts. if you told a girl you really liked titanic, that counts. if you ever told someone that you loved them and then chose to not see them for years, that definitely counts. whatever the degree, we are all in the same freakin' boat. to call nick saban out, to call anyone out without looking yourself in the mirror is quite, quite shallow.

i lie. all the time. i am not a premeditated liar anymore. sometimes, though, i just can't help it.

hannah, you are going to lie to your mommy and daddy maliciously and you are going to feel so bad about it. i know this because i've been there and done that. it's ok, we still love you. in advance.

nick saban is going to lie to me. and you, alabama fan. but i still love him. in advance.

opinion is great, because everyone has one. blogging is great, because in this world, my opinion is right.

i am of the opionion that if you are upset with nick saban or any other liar at this very moment, you should chill out. go get some ice cream. and know that the vast majority of liars are just people that have a battle being waged inside them between their head and their heart and are just trying to find their way through this world.

roll fucking tide.