Alabama’s hoops coach is setting a trend in college athletics we can all get behind

We want our college athletes to be responsible role models

Sports fans across the country, or at least outside SEC-land, may not be aware of what’s happening today at the University of Alabama, but it is noteworthy to be sure. The Crimson Tide’s head men’s basketball coach Anthony Grant, himself a former Alabama star player, has had enough. Last week, following the indefinite suspension of his best perimeter player, performance-wise that is, he all but cleared the bench by suspending three other Tide starters.

The move has drawn its share of catcalls from the peanut gallery, but in what has emerged as a more interesting response the Bama faithful have stepped up to the megaphone and voiced their strong support for the embattled coach. Rarely do we see fans rally so positively around a coach that has more or less chosen to toss his team’s season over the edge of a cliff for the sake of principal. But perhaps more importantly, it is even rarer that we see a coach doing the right thing in terms of disciplining a group of young men when the consequences could lead to his own demise.

So, why are fans lifting Coach Grant on their shoulders as their hopes for a great season evaporate? The overriding sentiment seems to be that fans are tired of boorish behavior in athletes who think that their you-know-what doesn’t stink. Fans have had enough, too. They’ve had to endure the ongoing saga of athletes that skate so nonchalantly through society as if they are not subject to the same rules to which every other person is held accountable. They, the fans, want athletes that represent their university in a good light instead of casting a shadow over the integrity of their school which too often is the case. Having the chance, then, to see in such a public fashion a coach who puts the college and the program above a win-at-all-cost mentality makes them proud, if not happy.

Discipline in college and high school athletics should not be tied to the potential for W’s or L’s. It should be, as Coach Grant is so bravely demonstrating, tied to responsibility. What is happening in Tuscaloosa is a microcosm of real American life. People are weary of watching young people and their overblown sense of entitlement being pampered. The public wants their leaders, like Coach Grant, to mold young people, not coddle them. Learning the essence of responsibility is an enormous part of that process.  Otherwise, we will continue to read each day about the former athlete who jilted someone out of their life savings, battered a spouse, failed to pay child support, was brought up on weapons charges, or lost all their earnings to gambling or incomprehensible bad judgment. Deep inside we want our college athletes to be future stars, yes, but we want them to be life’s stars not necessarily professional sports stars. We want our children to emulate their good character, not their dark side which gone unchecked eventually raises its ugly head.

But it has to start somewhere. We know that to be true.  Perhaps what we are seeing is a trend finally turning in the right direction. Maybe Coach Grant is sending an invaluable message to coaches across the intercollegiate landscape that there really is a higher purpose which coaches serve than winning games and championships. Then, we can only hope, that college athletes will become what we want them to be and live up to our loftiest of expectations.