Cam Robinson, Alabama’s stud left offensive tackle, as you may have heard, was arrested in Louisiana and charged with possession of a stolen firearm, a felony. Bruce Feldman says that’s a rough deal for Nick Saban.
Robinson, a Monroe, La., native, has started all 29 games in his career at Alabama. I’d argue that he is the player the Crimson Tide could least afford to lose on its 2016 roster. Yes, the Tide has other All-American caliber players on this team — DL Jonathan Allen, pass-rushing star Tim Williams, tight end O.J. Howard, wideout Calvin Ridley, but those guys aren’t quite as integral to this team’s success either due to how the depth chart stacks up or to the dependence on Robinson to what makes the Tide so tough.
Keep in mind, Alabama is already coping with the big task of replacing All-American center Ryan Kelly, the leader of the Tide’s O-line the past few years. Plus, they had to replace departed starter Dominick Jackson at right tackle. Robinson was their big man. Their ultimate go-to guy. He is a huge athletic man, who really comes off the football hard and has proven to be a dominant force in their run game, something which was a bedrock for this Tide offense as it, once again, enters the season with uncertainty about who its starting QB will be.
This is a program that prides itself on being physical and Robinson is tied to that identity more than any other player on this team.
No snark intended here, seeing as I’m well aware I root for a program that occupies a fairly spacious glass house, but if I’m Saban, the thing that has to worry me the most about resolving this problem in a way that preserves Robinson’s services for the 2016 season is that it’s an away game. It will be interesting to see how flexible the Louisiana justice system will be in this case.
Get The Picture 
Good Lord. Seems like OJ Howard was catching passes from Brodie Croyle. Is this is 15th year?
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Yeah but if you could pick any state outside of your own where you might be able to assert some, ummm, influence (money) to get the resolution you need, Louisiana would be at the top of your list!
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Saban better hope the case doesn’t get assigned to a judge who’s an LSU fan. 😉
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Haha well you know Saban’s luck always turns up roses. They’ll end up with a Tulane alums as judge who is pissed at LSU anyway over the camping situation.
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Herbie, take note. Remember how Georgia handled this?
Possesion of a stolen firearm? Remember Isiah Crowell was charged with the basically the same thing. He was dismissed from the team. Cam Robinson was also charged with misdemeanor drug possession..
And it happened to Crowell in Athens. I don’t see how CR ever plays another down at Alabama, but maybe I’m being naive.
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Crowell’s dismissal was more about a final straw than a first offense. Can’t leave that out.
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Where everybody knows your name
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Wonder how many straws CR has quitely piled on Saban’s back. I can’t believe he just suddenly, after all these years at ‘Bama, started this kind of thing.
He got caught out of his home territory. That was his mistake.
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Saban says, “We handle these cases internally”. Which we all know means if they don’t go to jail, they’ll play every game. If this had happened in Tuscaloosa, we would never have heard about it.
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First agenda item on Nick’s Presidential Daily Briefing:
Do you know the way to Monroe, LA?
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Remember this drug dealing Alabama player? Never heard another thing about this kid. I don’t believe he ever faced charges.
http://www.al.com/news/tuscaloosa/index.ssf/2014/10/alabama_football_player_caught.html
http://www.al.com/news/tuscaloosa/index.ssf/2014/10/what_happened_to_kurt_freitag.html
Of course, Freitag was on campus (probably dealing out of the FB dorm) when this happened:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/13/justice/alabama-football-player-arrests/
“About an hour later, Williams allegedly beat up another student until he, too, lost consciousness and took his wallet, WTVM said.
Hayes and Pettway waited in a vehicle, police said.
Later that morning, Williams and Calloway used the second victim’s debit card to buy snacks from a vending machine, police said.”
To sum up: Players had munchies. Beat someone unconscious to get money for snacks.
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That article is a perfect example of the difference between a championship-winning program having off -the-field issues and a non championship-winning program that has players who run afoul of the law. Notice the story only talks about tactical football … Not “Saban is having a hard time controlling his troops since he lost Kirby, awesome leader Player A and awesome leader Player B, etc.” To the victors go the spoils of media breaks, as usual.
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Yep. St. Johns Dawg……you wouldn’t happen to coach MS Basketball, would you?
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Naw, taint me. 🙂
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Just more proof of the un-level playing field. The NCAA sets many standards, some that are enforced to the third decimal point, but nothing for illegal activities. Pretty weird that neither they, nor the “moral” institutions it represents, think criminal activity is worthy of automatic disqualification across the board. Leaving it to the schools and ADs is making for some pretty ugly smears on the schools themselves (State Penn, Auburn, TN, Miami, Baylor, USC, ohio, etc.), there is a better way and it isn’t self policing.
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