You’re forgiven if you weren’t watching the ‘Bama-Missouri game in its late stages, but if you weren’t, you may have missed this body slam performed by the Tide’s LaMichael Fanning.
Now one play doesn’t make a player a thug, or bad, or whatever, but in light of all the mouth noises Slive has made about player safety this year, you would think that suspending Fanning for a game would be a – forgive me here – slam dunk decision. I hadn’t said anything before now because I thought it was a pretty obvious call for the conference to make. So far, though, nothing but crickets from the SEC.
Then again, since Nick Saban has made Fanning apologize, maybe the conference has just decided to outsource its discipline. I will admit that Fanning is probably more afraid of his coach than the SEC commissioner.
Get The Picture 
Pretty sure he took this right from the WWF playbook. I’m sure someone has the move’s namesake in the memory bank. Please remind me
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WOOOOOOoooooooo! Suplex.
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A German suplex, to be more specific.
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Any chance we could line up a cage match between this guy, The Nature Boy, The American Dream Dusty Rhodes, The Steiner Brothers and Jimmy Superfly Snuka? That would be one worthwhile PPV experience even if those guys are long in the tooth by now.
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The Dog Faced Gremlin…saw a dude at lunch today that looked just like him.
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NCAA Rule 252.01 clearly states that “a player will not be considered guilty of unnecessary roughness if he becomes very sorry about the foul within 48 hours.”
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He’s not sorry about the foul. He’s sorry that his coach is pissed off about the foul.
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2 mins left in the game, is he from S Cackalacky, classless.
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He’s from Hamilton, GA according to the graphic shown after the penalty.
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Nick Saban doesn’t have time for Mike Slive or his dumb ass suspensions.
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“we are managing internally things for him to do to make better choices and decisions in the future.”
Nick’s Self Help Improvement Team institutes internal management regime protocol. All is well.
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I see what you did there… and I approve.
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Got to love the response of the Mizzou line the next two plays. They pushed him over and appeared to push his helmet off and who knows what else. The refs ignored it too. They must have figured he had it coming.
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Seriously. Dude got completely worked by those two linemen. Ended up looking like a chump. Good for you Mizzou. I can honestly say I have no antipathy towards that team. Seem like classy folks. Can’t say the same about the majority of the rest of the teams in the conference.
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The refs didn’t ignore it…Saban told those two players and the refs that the next two plays would be used to issue out Bama style justice.
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They were giving him the business down there.
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Have to figure at least a game suspension if he plays for anyone but Saban. I truly think Slive is afraid of him. Sad to feel that way. You would like to think rules would be applied evenly.
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If Richt had UGA do this we’d all be preaching about how it shows we’re serious and ready to play
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If Richt had UGA do this, the refs would be pissed and take it out on the Dawgs with horrible officiating for the next 2-3 years…just like they did with the Celebration penalty.
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This guy!
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Alabama and Florida are undefeated will be protected by the SEC going forward as commisioner Slive wants the BCS money. The only way this changes is if somehow Mississippi State pulls the upset over Alabama and/or LSU sneaks back into the top four in BCS rankings.
Going forward, if any conference-level suspensions happen for these teams, it will be for meaningless games.
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This.
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Anyone planning to upset Bama needs to do it in a non-close fashion (see the non-calls in close wins by top-ranked SEC teams over UT in Bama’s title run, and Florida over Arky in 2008.)
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I am not sure exactly what the Bama defender is supposed to do. The running back kept on running….he tried to fall on him but that did not work.
I would appreciate someone who knows telling me what was worse to the Bama kid….doing what he did to end the play, or facing Nick Saban had he let the player go and he ran 50 yards.
There is no whistle till the running back hits the ground, and you will notice Fanning actually turns the back so his head does not hit the ground first.
Are we punishing Fanning because he can bench press a running back here?
This is not a defenseless player and there is no head to head contact.
Actually this seems to me to be the running back’s fault, he should have just taken a knee, right?
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I can’t tell if you’re trolling or not.
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In my best Cousin Eddie voice, “You serious Clark?”
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yep
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“I am not sure exactly what the Bama defender is supposed to do.”
I don’t know…maybe just tackle him?
“Fanning actually turns the back so his head does not hit the ground first.”
So give him a pass because he used good form?
“Actually this seems to me to be the running back’s fault, he should have just taken a knee, right?”
Maybe he just should have screamed, “Uncle!!!” faster and thus avoided the suplex. Any defense of this play is just amazing to me, but by all means, carry on…
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Look again please….Fanning tries to tackle him, wraps both arms around him, the running back keeps fighting the tackle….what do you want Fanning to do….just let him go and hope the officials blow the whistle? (which they did not)
The uproar over this play is amazing to me….does nobody understand physics….momentum+equal and opposite reaction? It appears to me Fanning could very easily have thrown the back straight down into the ground on the top of his hat…but he did not, and appears to me to be making an effort not to do that.
Football players are taught from the womb to finish the play, not to quit…seems to me what you got here is two players who are trying to do that.
Maybe you ought to start muting the expert commentary on your tv set so it won’t confuse you.
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Definitely trolling.
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Scorp, I have to disagree with you here if you’re serious. When I look at that play, the RB’s head is the first thing to hit the ground, and it’s the top/back of the head at an angle where some serious neck injury could have occurred. If the Bammer was strong enough to pick him up for a belly-to-back suplex, then he was also strong enough to pull the guy down without resorting to Fairley tactics.
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The back hits the ground on his back.
This is beginning to bore me. I see what I see.
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Even Fairley never did anything that dangerous.
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Normally, a player hitting the ground results in a whistle. Stopping a player’s forward progress, say by lifting the player into the air, will also result in a whistle stopping the play. If you think Fanning takes any action to prevent injury to the running back, then you didn’t watch the play closely enough. It’s not the running back’s fault for not going down quickly. But this is not one of those clean hits that tragically results in serious injury. This was a dirty play that, fortunately, didn’t result in injury.
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Mr. SEC looked at the rule book. A player can be ejected from a game, and suspended by the conference, for a flagrant foul. A flagrant foul is defined as “a rule infraction so extreme or deliberate that it places an opponent in danger of catastrophic injury.”
Obviously, Fanning committed a flagrant foul, although he wasn’t ejected from the game. What really gets me is Slive maintaining that he’s so very concerned about player safety while he let’s this stand. And the SEC has stated that it has reviewed Fanning’s actions and will take no action.
That seems more dangerous to me. If I’m a Missouri player or coach, I would be sorely tempted to put a bounty on Fanning. Is players and teams policing each other on the field what Slive thinks is good for the game?
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If you go by precedent, then no suspension will come. He was abiding by the non-suspended example of Nick Fairley who did this with frequency in 2010.
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+1
Henceforth now known as the Trey-Fairley rule.
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Not only that. When you pair the Trey-Fairley Rule with the Hoot-Smalley Act, you’ve got a volatile combination in all 57 states several of which are outside of tSEC
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So who play the role of Canada here? 😉
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This is, unfortunately, the correct answer.
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There’s only one man I’ve seen who can hit someone like that but make it look natural and devastating…..his name was Greg Blue and he ate people.
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Don’t forget Thomas Davis.
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+1 And TD
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Does anyone know if Fanning’s TA was vandalized before the game?
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+1 for making me think of Phoebe Cates.
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Haven’t they only suspended so far for launching?
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Yes, but you have to under stand, the TV guy said it might merit a suspension, that’s really important.
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There was a video posted on BOL showing the next two plays…two interior MU linemen wore Fanning out. [I’d link it, but the YouTube says the video has been removed.]
It’s excessive and stoopid, but I’m not sure how else to classify it. There’s just some things you don’t do and sometimes you don’t know them until you see them – this is one.
Have a good day, BD
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Here it is…
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Actually I guess that’s the Senator’s link…oh well.
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Refs missed the “giving the business” call.
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That’s funny as hell. Is that anything like playing grab-ass after lights out?
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I know porn when I see it!
😉
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Compared to the way Butkus would hit that was nothing. Hell of a tackle.
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It was dirty, period. The running back is lucky he didn’t suffer a serious injury. I will acknowledge that Fanning’s emotions could have gotten the better of him, so he may not be a psychopath. However, there was nothing laudable in that play.
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Notice how the Alabama d-line shifts on both plays to leave Fanning isolated? Especially on the second play. Maybe a total coincidence, but it’s pretty funny when you know he’s going to get blown up at the snap.
I also would swear the ref who walks by Fanning at the 1:18 mark called him an $$$hole, but I’m spotty when it comes to lip-reading.
When did the SEC issue suspensions with other players? Mon? Tue?
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One was Monday and one was Tuesday. But the SEC has issued a statement that they will not discipline Fanning.
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Don’t understand how Slive can suspend someone for a slam/bam hit that is questionable re intent, then overlook this act. I agree he could have just lost it temporarily but Fairley committed acts over and over with coaches submiting complaints and Slive still did nothing. Hard to set a standard when the bar keeps moving.
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The SEC obviously doesn’t have an “equal protection” clause in it’s constitution.. How many times have we bitched about the officiating in the conference? It’s obviously bad from the top down. What an irony that the best football confernce has the sorriest officiating. Georgia has had it’s share of muggings, but the lower you are on the SEC ladder, the worse it gets. Vandy can count on getting ripped big-time two or three times a year. Bama? Nada…I hate it when a sports announcer in ANY sport maintains that a rookie or less known player hasn’t earned the benefit of a call…ie a famous pitcher getting more room off the corners of the plate….a basketball player getting extra steps on a lay-up… a defensive back that gets away with pass interference…the QB who gets away with intentional grounding…etc…I’d rather lose than win with a homer call and I sure as crap don’t want to lose that way. I still wish the SEC would outsource the officiating to an unbiased, professional organization from a distant part of America.
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While I don’t think there is a scientific measurement for “the worst” officiating by conference and agree that the SEC’s is pretty woeful, if you can stomach the football, then you should sit down with a 12 pack and check out abysmal officiating they see on a weekly basis in the Pac12. I would argue that it out paces the SEC for worst officiating.
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