The sound of a man washing his hands of a matter:
Alabama head coach Nick Saban declined to discuss specifics when asked Monday about the vetting process for Taylor.
“I’m not really going to answer all those questions,” Saban said. “I spoke to everybody that had an opportunity to give us some idea of what kind of young man that Jonathan Taylor was. And is. And you know, I still think he’s a good person, I think he has a problem and a circumstance that is not acceptable. And that is his problem. And he has been certainly dealt with relative to this problem.”
The thing is, Saban didn’t talk with Mark Richt about Taylor. He didn’t talk with the DA’s office prosecuting Taylor’s case. He didn’t talk to the UGA Police Department, either. But you know who did?
The University of Alabama Police Department obtained and reviewed photographs that detailed Jonathan Taylor’s 2014 alleged aggravated assault in Athens, Ga., before Taylor enrolled at UA in January…
…According to emails obtained via a public records request, in the weeks leading up to Taylor’s arrival at UA, Lt. Eric Dellinger, a UGA Police Department spokesman, sent an internal email on Dec. 18 regarding a phone call he received from UAPD Assistant Police Chief Lee Harris.
Dellinger wrote that Harris “indicated that Mr. Taylor was possibly about to be a student with them and wanted to speak with someone who was familiar with his history here at UGA.”
Later that day, Lt. Jeff Hammock of UGAPD’s Criminal Investigations Division emailed Harris photographs from the July 22 domestic violence incident involving Taylor. The incident report from July, which was emailed to UAPD soon after the photographs, cited the victim having “visible scratches and red marks to her neck and bruises on her arm and leg.” The report stated that photographs were taken of the victim’s injuries once police arrived on scene…
So Saban didn’t even bother to check to see that the local cops were doing a more thorough job of due diligence than the football program conducted. You know, for a guy who is famously known for being as detail-oriented as they come, that sure is an interesting oversight.
Get The Picture 
Regarding his “detail-oriented” nature, I’m sure it had less to do with checking with UGA coaches and UGA police, but had more to do with watching game footage for how good of a ball player Taylor is.
LikeLike
Bingo.
LikeLike
Is is common practice for a police department to contact another police department about the police record of a potential student or student-athlete?
Boy, the Po Po at Auburn and Louisville must have a dedicated section to do back ground checks on football players.
LikeLike
They got a name for the winners of the world.
LikeLike
Nice. That’s probably gonna send me rummaging through my old CDs tonight. 🙂
LikeLike
There is a souvenier shop in T town in walking distance from the stadium that plays this song on a continuos loop alternating with “Sweet Home Alabama.”
LikeLike
“I’ll take Playlist Dissonance for $1000, Alex…”
LikeLike
That reminds me of an Allman Brothers concert I went to where the organizers thought playing Phil Collins music for an hour before the concert started would be a good idea.
LikeLike
That is exactly how the shit at Altamont started, only they were playing Herman’s Hermits. Turns out neither Stones fans nor the Hell’s Angels like Herman’s Hermits. I saw them at the Ultimate Oldies concert in 1993…and that was the first time I wanted to stab someone. Eat shit Peter Noone.
Sorry. That took a turn.
LikeLike
If only they had named their band after a steam-powered dildo rather than a bunch of loners…
LikeLike
Interesting quotes about Bama football (and, I suppose, the South in general) here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deacon_Blues
LikeLike
Dang…this was meant to be in reply to Scorp.
LikeLike
I do find it interesting a couple of West Coast songwriters, when looking for an illustration of a winner, picked Bama football.
Weren’t no Wiki in 1977. Wish they had asked for tapes of the 76 Georgia game…oh well.
LikeLike
No, if Wiki were around back then, it wouldn’t have been Rikki who lost that number.
LikeLike
Isn’t it interesting how we all listen to a song and come away from it with own view of what the songwriters were alluding to.
“…couple of West Coast songwriters, when looking for an illustration of a winner, picked Bama football.”
‘You mean it’s like, they call these cracker assholes this grandiose name like the Crimson Tide, and I’m this loser, so they call me this other grandiose name, Deacon Blues?’
“The name “Crimson Tide” is supposed to have first been used by Hugh Roberts, former sports editor of the Birmingham Age-Herald. He used “Crimson Tide” in describing an Alabama-Auburn game played in Birmingham in 1907, the last football contest between the two schools until 1948 when the series was resumed. The game was played in a sea of mud and Auburn was a heavy favorite to win.”
…good day.
LikeLike
“Red Tide” describes the small organisms (algae) blooming in polluted water that deplete the environmental oxygen and release toxins that kill fish and causes other wildlife mortalities. NOAA uses the term “HAB” (Harmful Algal Bloom) synonymously for Red Tide.
A microcosm of this phenomenon occurs on the campus of the University of Alabama that’s also known as Red Tide and is known as RE HAB, aka, Recruit Enabler Red Tide. The UA RE HAB causative organism is a diminutive human organism called Saban rehab or S. rehab (known to Bama fans as “Big Ess” soul rehabber) who frequently sucks the oxygen from the room and conversely enables wild life on the UA campus.
LikeLike
Bluto, I can’t tell if you are being tongue in cheek, but you don’t think Saban was aware the Tuscaloosa PD was doing this legwork? Probably FOR him at his request?
LikeLike
Meaning Saban’s lying now?
Nope. I think Saban knew from the beginning exactly how far he wanted to push things. He got happy answers from Taylor’s high school and JUCO coaches and quit while he was ahead.
LikeLike
So you think the Tuscaloosa PD independently conducted it’s own internal investigation on a POTENTIAL student athlete without any connection to the athletic department? How many of those do they run a year?
I’m just saying I’m not sure I buy Saban was totally segregated from this PD investigation. Although I’m not a lawyer nor a law enforcement officer so I don’t know how these things work. Just doubtful he wasn’t connected given his level of autonomy and attention to detail.
LikeLike
In this case, he wasn’t connected because he didn’t want to be.
If I’m wrong, I’m sure the UAPD will step up and let us know.
LikeLike
The way I read between the lines is that Saban wanted to only talk to those people who would tell him what he wanted to hear. He knew the HS coach and JUCO coach wouldl tell him what he wanted to hear. If he had enlisted the PD then he runs the risk of losing control over the source of information.
My guess is the UAPD did this in order to be prepared to have to deal with potential future problems.
LikeLike
This investigation request easily could have come from the Admissions folks or the AD’s office, not necessarily from Saban. Plausible deniability.
LikeLike
It was either “cya” or “lying in wait.” Who knows which?
LikeLike
It’s got to be part of the process in UA land, probably preceding Saban, so he doesn’t actually make the call to the UAPD, they just know to conduct these investigations. The question is…did they share the results with Saban (or someone on his staff)? If so, is that even legal?
LikeLike
He doesn’t call them. They come to him. They have a meeting every morning. Saban is basically Sgt. Getraer in CHiPs.
LikeLike
I have no idea how the Tuscaloosa PD conducts it’s business, but it’s unusual for a police department to call another one about one guy unless the guy is a) a career criminal or b) a sex offender. Taylor is neither, but he is a football player with a cloud of controversy hanging over him and it seems to me that everything in Tuscaloosa is a cog in a giant football machine.
LikeLike
One state economist estimated the economic impact of football at Auburn University and the University of Alabama as high as $500 million annually.
Alabama may rank among the least prosperous states nationally. But when it comes to Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium or Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium, the state has its own little Wall Street.
LikeLike
Maybe the Bama police were fishing for info about how serious the charges and potential pending jail time. It would be nice to know, before you offered the guy a chance to play…that he was actually going to be available.
LikeLike
Since its the UA police doing the asking of the UGA police, I’d say you may be right. Makes sense that part of the vetting process would be whether the kid is going to go to jail in the middle of the season.
One thing I have wondered, not that it matters much, is this the same girl as the one in Athens?
LikeLike
I wondered that, too, whether it may have been the same victim. That would be doubly sad.
LikeLike
I wondered if they were two different women. Would a student follow her boyfriend to another school? If memory serves the Athens girl was 21 and 170lbs. All I remember about Bama girl is that she was 25? All we can be sure of is that Mr. Taylor has a preference for older, big-boned women?
LikeLike
With scarred scrawny necks.
LikeLike
Cojones… meet Taylors new girlfriend.
LikeLike
Helps keep your beer mug steady.
LikeLike
That’s wrong of you…
LikeLike
Yeah, I know, but just can’t resist sometimes, especially since she already has a planter there. My Bad among a bunch of UGA fans that consists of both genders.
LikeLike
Next time maybe the Bama police will try catfishing someone instead
LikeLike
I don’t buy any of it. Why would he have stood out as a Juco player that just happened to have been passed over from HS? Gedouttaheay! His attention came from his infamy and Bama and Saban knew full well what had happened at UGA. Their head-in-the-sand excuse won’t come close to cutting it. That puts them into the enabler category and most people here know it, but don’t want to trash the aholes who did it. You gotta ask yourself; If it had been Grantham and Louisville, would you be doing Mr Nice hoop-dancing about now. Don’t think so.
I take the Tuscaloosa PD request as a roundabout way for Bama to attempt to skirt the vetting issue, but with their full internal knowledge of what really happened at UGA.. It’s not like they didn’t get their nose rubbed into it when it happened. They did and it was in the natl press on the day they admitted him. Nope, this one looks and walks like a duck and Saban has been caught quacking. If the natl press doesn’t apply pressure, you can bet recruiting will take a hard turn into the gutter because anything will go from here on out.
LikeLike
Pardon my error, but could swear the info two days ago mentioned the Tuscaloosa PD involved instead of the UA Campus police. If this is now corrected to UACP, it’s even more direct and damaging info against Saban and Bama.
By the way, what happened to the players who pulled a strong-arm robbery at the Coke machine in a dorm on UA campus? Isn’t there some addition to the Campus Police and Bama crime wave?
Mommas and Daddies don’t send yo kids to Bama. Red Thugga Tide gonna git’em. .
LikeLike
I don’t think this is such a big deal. He screwed up royally at Georgia and Richt cut him. Saban took a chance on him and it didn’t pan out. Where’s the scandal?
LikeLike
Touche.
LikeLike
The scandal is in the denial of vetting with the school that had ample reason for throwing him out for domestic violence. Of course, if that isn’t high on your priorities, then it wouldn’t matter.
LikeLike