The regional and provincial nature of college football requires you to be interested in a school other than your own or one you have no connection to. If you want to embrace the sport, you must get used to watching southern colleges like Georgia, Clemson, LSU, and, of course, Alabama, dominate the game while you wait for your school, if not one of the Big Ten's two athletic powerhouses, to qualify for the Slim Jim Bowl or something similar. Since moving to Iowa, I've adopted the Hawkeyes as my team. I love them because they're like my Chicago Bears; they still haven't figured out their offense.
Luckily, sports history fascinates me, so I was ready to watch Nothing But a Winner: The Alabama Football Story. Here's a documentary that contextualizes the Alabama Crimson Tide football program and its decades of unprecedented dominance, examining the coaching practices of two legends: the late Paul "Bear" Bryant and the recently retired Nick Saban. Bryant and Saban led the Crimson Tide to dynastic heights in two distinct eras, a combined 13 national championships in 42 (non-consecutive) seasons.
Director: Jimmy Jenkins
Writers: Jimmy Jenkins, Isaiah Smallman, Eric Wiener
Stars: Jonathan Allen, Greg Byrne, Jeremiah Castille
It's reached the point where if Alabama fans consider seasons without a national championship a complete failure, ask new Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer how Crimson Tide fans reacted when his team lost to Vanderbilt last year.
The separate but similar reigns of Bryant and Saban over the Crimson Tide football program are contextualized with players coached by both. Director Jimmy Jenkins meets with some of Bryant's star players. Among them are Wilbur Jackson and defensive back John Mitchell, the first two Black members of Alabama football after desegregation. Also featured are College and Pro Football Hall of Famer Ozzie Newsome, former quarterback Walter Lewis, and cornerback Jeremiah Castille, the Crimson Tide's affable leader for four seasons. I found myself leaning forward when Castille spoke. It feels like he was the glue on those early 1980s teams when Bryant needed help informing new players about Alabama's standards.
Curiously absent from the documentary are Joe Namath, who never misses an opportunity to gush about Bryant or the Alabama program, and Derrick Henry, arguably the NFL's greatest all-around running back since Adrian Peterson.
In the Saban era, several current NFL players get a chance to share their perspectives, including Heisman Trophy winner DeVonta Smith, wide receiver Jerry Jeudy, defensive end Jonathan Allen, and the recent Super Bowl MVP, quarterback Jalen Hurts. Hurts opens up about being a substitute during the national championship game against Georgia. After repeated struggles, Saban replaced him with rookie Tua Tagovailoa, who ultimately defeated the Bulldogs. Hurts swallowed his pride and took his 26-2 record as a starter to the bench, while Tagovailoa assumed the starting quarterback responsibilities. This may be the first time Hurts has spoken at length about his emotions during the game and the season that followed. For football fans, that alone might justify the price of admission.
The large cast of commentators on Nothing But a Winner does an excellent job of contextualizing the sporting and social climates that served as backdrops for both Bryant and Saban during their coaching tenures. Bryant faced opponents on the field and those opposed to racial integration during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Saban took over a team that, in some ways, lost its way after his retirement. Much later, it was Saban who made Jalen Hurts the program's first Black freshman starting quarterback. Side note: Gene Stallings' tenure as head coach at Bama, where he guided his team to a title in 1992, shouldn't be forgotten.
The worst tendency of Nothing But a Winner is that it often feels like a recruiting video for the Crimson Tide. Perhaps that's what inevitably happens when you have to contextualize the greatness of two similar football coaches who demanded excellence, raged on their players even when victories were coming in droves, and, in Saban's case, even dominated first-year players on defense after allowing 40 points in the championship victory.
Still, the rose-colored glasses and the lavish praise showered on Bryant and Saban are clearly legitimate when viewed side by side.
Comments
Post a Comment