Don't rule anything out when it comes to expanding the Crimson Tide brand

A few years ago, just after Nick Saban became the head coach at Alabama, I decided to conduct an experiment while vacationing in Canada.

Normally I couldn't wear anything saying Crimson Tide on it because I covered the football team, but one day in Montreal I decided to do so to see how long it would take anyone to notice. It was going to be for a work-related blog entry, but I heard no cries of "Roll Tide" and that was that.

Somehow I get the feeling that if I did it again the same wouldn't occur today. Three subsequent national championships will do that for a football program, especially one steeped in tradition like Alabama.

According to Collegiate Licensing Company's rankings last year the top 10 sellers in merchandise were:

1. Texas
2. Alabama
3. Michigan
4. Notre Dame
5. Georgia
6. Florida
7. LSU
8. Florida State
9. Texas A&M
10. North Carolina

I was reminded of this today with the enclosed photo form the 2015 IIHF Men's World Championship   being played in the Czech Republic. The guy on the right, looking a little uncomfortable, is American phenom Jack Eichol. The 18-year-old just finished his first year at Boston University and barring a huge surprise with be the No. 2 selection in this year's NHL Draft by Buffalo.

Yet he's wearing a Crimson Tide hat.

Someday in the not-too-distant-future Alabama might actually have a Division I program if it comes to the conclusion hockey could be a revenue sport. Notre Dame recently built a beautiful ice arena, as did Penn State, and the foundation of a Crimson Tide program is already in place. The club-level Frozen Tide is moving up to the American Collegiate Hockey Association's top division and is aiming to play some NCAA Division I teams next season.

Recruiting in Quebec may not be far behind.

Thus is the long arm of collegiate athletics, which is growing longer by the day and in more ways than most fans would have recently believed possible (trust me, somewhere the possibility of putting hockey games on the SEC Network and trying to attract affiliates in Canada has been discussed). It's also why, in part, we have things like last week's announcement that there will be three more bowl games at the end of this upcoming season, for a record 42 bowls including the College Football Playoff championship.

The three newcomers are the Arizona Bowl in Tucson at the University of Arizona's stadium, the Cure Bowl in Orlando at the Citrus Bowl, and a bowl to be played in Austin at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Overall there will be 84 bowl slots available, and last year 82 teams won the necessary six games to qualify.

What's next, a bowl game in Tuscaloosa? It sounds about as far-fetched as hockey, doesn't it?

Teams you hate to face in the postseason

Those who know me are well aware that I'm a hockey freak and can't get enough, especially when the postseason rolls around. FYI, my favorite teams are the University of New Hampshire, Minnesota Wild and Boston Bruins.

Consequently, last night was brutal for me. It started with watching the Buins' biggest rival, the Montreal Canadiens, win, then seeing the Chicago Blackhawks sweep the Wild. Hoping to end the day on a better note I watched USA vs. Belarus in the World Championships ... and we lost ... to Belarus. 

Belarus!

Apparently the hockey gods are in cruel/point-and-laugh mood this year.

Anyway, between the Blackhawks and the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA I've been thinking about teams you never want to face in the postseason. Sure, it changes over time, but it's just amazing to me how some teams/programs always seem to be a nightmare to face when the most on the line.

A lot of that is coaching and character, but here's my list of teams that have that status (feel free to tweet me at @CrimsonWalsh to make your own case):

NBA: For me it was the Spurs, who I would never count out until they took the fourth loss in a series, and then would still wait until after the postgame press conferences. Now I think it's up for grabs. The Warriors? The Cavaliers? We'll see. 

NCAA basketball: Michigan State

NCAA hockey: North Dakota

NHL: The Los Angeles Kings had this distinction, but since they didn't make the playoffs this year it's the Blackhawks. When goalie Corey Crawford is on, like he was against the Wild, the Hawks are very, very tough to beat. 

MLB: San Francisco Giants 

NFL: New England Patriots 

NCAA football: North Dakota State

Ok, I want to say it's Alabama, which earned the status during the BCS era, but I think we're going to have to wait a while to see if it's still true during the playoff era. Anyone who is overlooking Nick Saban, though, is making a huge mistake. 

Trip Down Memory Lane, Part I (2006)

One of my summer projects, besides figuring out what I’m going to do with the rest of my life, is to pare down my personal library of things I’ve written -- which isn't as easy as it sounds. 

Your see, years ago, before ESPN/Disney and Apple started taking over the world, or Skynet, if a reporter wanted a copy of anything he or she had published in a newspaper simply printing it out wasn't an option. He or she would have to get that edition and physically cut it out, and then do that each and every day. 

Some of you will be surprised to learn that we had to buy the paper as well. Yes, we had to pay to have a copy of our own work. 

For roughly 20 years I did this. We’re talking thousands and thousands of stories, which were stored in binders that I’ve been lugging everywhere I’ve moved. Alas, considering a lot of the stories are notes and at this point things that are probably best forgotten I’ve decided to scale things down a bit.

However, when I look at some of them my jaw drops. I’ll share some of them here.

These are all from stories I did for the Tuscaloosa News in 2006, as is the photo from above when Mal Moore announced that Mike Shula was no longer the football coach at Alabama (BTW, that's me in the front row on the right side).

Aug. 26 – “Little-known Spaulding an integral part of Tide”

That’s long-snapper Luke Spaulding, and yes I went with the obvious Caddeyshack lede.

Sept. 14 – “Full speed ahead: Special-teams player is making his mark”

His name? Rashad Johnson, the walk-on at running back who became an All-American safety.

Do you remember Nikta Stover and Will Oakley starting at wide receiver?

Oct. 19 – “Ready or not, Barnes is Bama’s backup”

Jimmy Barnes was promoted when Marc Guillon quit the team six games into the season.

Dec. 25 – “Christmas in Shreveport”

The Independence Bowl was homecoming for linebacker Zach Schreiber.

Dec 27 – “Insurance Policy”

No. 37 Trent Dean was Alabama’s emergency quarterback for the Independence Bowl. Had John Parker Wilson sustained an injury running back Jimmy Johns would have been inserted as option one.

Dec. 28 – “One Final Run”

Heading into his final game, Kenneth Darby needed 251 rushing yards to break Shaun Alexander’s career rushing record of 3,565

Joe Kines at the Independence Bowl. Priceless.

What can I say, it vexes me

It's Tuesday afternoon and I'm still bothered.

I guess it's not all bad. I get to make a reference to the line that always cracks me up when I watch the movie Gladiator: "I'm terribly vexed."

This past weekend had the potential to be one of the all-time greats when it comes to sports.

There was the Kentucky Draft, NFL Draft, NASCAR at Talladega, some great hockey in the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Red Sox and Yankees highlighting the Major League Baseball schedule (although we seem to see that all the time now), Premier League soccer, a terrific Game 7 between the Clippers and Spurs in the NBA Playoffs, PGA match play ...

... and then there was Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao.

On the day of the fight news broke that reporters who had drawn attention into Mayweather's history with domestic violence were claiming they had been banned from attending.

Specifically, he's been involved in seven domestic abuse cases against five women that have resulted in arrests or citations. In 2011, he served two months of a three-month sentence after pleading guilty to domestic violence charges involving a former girlfriend.

Police have also been called in other times during which charges were not filed. Regardless, that's a disgusting trend. If your want to read about it check out Deadspin, it's claim Las Vegas essentially aided in a cover up, and the written testimony of a 10-year-old.

Two of the reporters involved were female and both highly regarded. What surprised me was that there wasn't more of an outcry or any apparent discussion of media outlets walking in protest (which speaks volumes about the declining state of journalism). The guess here is that they all considered the fight too big, which is really a shame.

Subsequently after the fight it was revealed that Pacquiao had entered the ring with a bad shoulder. When Bob Arum was asked about it in the post-fight press conference the reporter had the microphone taken away. The promoter dodged other inquiries as well as Mayweather has both in and out of the ring.

Let's call this what it was, a big-time money grab, leaving a lingering bad taste not only about the fight but really the whole weekend that began with Jameis Winston being the first player selected in the draft. It's really a shame, but in my mind the big winners turned out to be those who took the $100 pay-per-view fee and instead donated it to charities and organizations that deal with domestic abuse.  

My NFL draft scorecard

Well, I got it right that at least six former Alabama players would be selected, got it wrong (again) that the Crimson Tide had chance to break the program record of 10 players picked in one draft, and absolutely hated that none of the "journalists" could really report from the draft during the first round. 

Anyway, the rundown: 

Amari Cooper, I predicted first round, Raiders 
Got that one right at No. 4 overall

Landon Collins, predicted late first round, Eagles
After he slid out of the first round the Giants traded up to make him the first pick of the second round, the same spot DeMeco Ryans went (Wow - was that really 2006?). Now he gets to terrorize the Eagles for not taking him, which probably cost Collins about $1.5 million, but long-term the Giants could be be a much better fit. 

T.J. Yeldon, predicted late second round, Cowboys
The Jaguars jumped up and took him with the fourth selection of the second round. He'll challenge Toby Gerhart, the guy Mark Ingram Jr. beat out for the 2009 Heisman Trophy, for the starting job. 

Arie Kouandjio, predicted fourth round, Texans
Went fourth round to the Redskins and gets to play close to home. Bet he's thrilled.

Jalston Fowler, predicted fourth round, Titans
That's exactly when and where he went. 

Xzavier Dickson, predicted fifth round, Jaguars

Dropped all the way to the seventh round where the Patriots snared him to provide some competition. One thing that works to his advantage is he pretty much knows the defense already. 

Austin Shepherd, predicted sixth round, Packers
Right division, wrong team as he went in the seventh round to the Vikings. He's the only Crimson Tide player on the roster. 

DeAndrew White, predicted sixth round, Buccaneers
Wasn't drafted, signed as a free agent with San Francisco, which needed some wide receiver help and only selected Georgia Tech's DeAndre Smelter.

Also signed free-agent deals ... 
Trey DePriest, LB, Ravens
Brandon Ivory, DT, Texans
Christion Jones, WR, Dolphins
Nick Perry, S, Ravens
Blake Sims, QB, Will try out with Packers
Brian Vogler, TE, Bears

Good luck to them all ... 

P.S. The linebacker from Harvard, Zack Hodges, went underrated and signed a free-agent deal with the Colts. 

Hype, humility an Nick Saban's updated first-round draft numbers

It's the end of the first day and I'm officially drafted out. All that hype and buildup just to find out that Jameis Winston still has no concept of the word humility. Good luck Tampa Bay.

Here are some things of note from Thursday night, the first two of which update charts I compiled for the book Nick Saban vs. College Football.

• Even though Alabama only had one player selected in the first round, snapping a five-year string of multiple first-rounders, Amari Cooper was the 22nd to be coached by Nick Saban -- and that figure doesn't include seven additional former players taken in the first round within three years after left Michigan State and LSU. The 22 leads active coaches ahead of Steve Spurrier (17), Les Miles (15), Bob Stoops (13), Mark Richt (12), and Urban Meyer (11).

• Saban's 22 moves him into fourth all-time behind Joe Paterno (33), Bobby Bowden (32), and Woody Hayes (27). Add those extra seven and he'd be third, with the two ahead of him having tenures spanning 40-plus years.

• Winston was the first player from Florida State to ever be the first-overall selection. Bowden may have coached great players like Deion Sanders, Derrick Brooks, Charlie Ward, Chris Weinke and Warrick Dunn, but his best showing in the draft was third overall, defensive end Andre Wadsworth in 1998. He didn't have much of a career with the Arizona Cardinals (and trust me, I know. I covered the Cardinals in 1998-99).

• Raiders coach Jack Del Rio got some long looks at Amari Cooper during Alabama's practices when he was on-hand to watch his son Luke, a former Crimson Tide walk-on quarterback: “I would just say that when you talk about this young man coming in at this level, as a draft prospect that has not played in the NFL yet, it’s unusual when words like ‘polished’ are thrown out, but that’s what you see. He has been lined up all across the board – outside, both sides, inside the slot, moving around, even lined up in the backfield some. So he’s been exposed to a lot, been utilized a lot of different ways. He’s run the entire route tree. They compete at Alabama, just competing in that conference in the time that he’s had. The repetitions that he’s had playing the position, running the route tree and doing all the things that he’s done to develop himself, makes him a guy that has that label of being polished. That’s why, he’s earned it."

• It took Amari Cooper only six questions on a conference call with Bay-area reporters to be asked about former Raiders coach Lane Kiffin. His response: “He wanted to see every player reach their fullest potential. He harped on the small things with me, like looking the ball all the way through and high-pointing the ball so that I can be the best player that I can be."

• Have $300? The Raiders website immediately started taking orders for Cooper jerseys.

• Finally, constantly seeing "The pick is in" on the screen while hearing about something that had already happened was for the birds. Here's hoping the twitter/online ban on picks before they're announced goes out the window, and/or the selections are revealed as they really happen next year.

Random thoughts about the NFL Draft ...

One of my pet peeves about this time of year is the constant talk of a prospect's stock rising or falling just before the NFL Draft.

Generally speaking, there is no such thing.

Teams spend all year accumulating information about players and evaluating. Prospects are assigned ratings/grades that are constantly tweaked and only at the end are full draft boards compiled.

When you hear that someone's draft stock is rising or falling it usually means the reporters are catching on that a player might be better or worse than he or she initially believed, or that someone has convinced them of that. Agents are lobbying for their clients, teams are hoping players they want may drop to them, and so on. The smokescreens can be blinding, especially with so much money at stake.

An obvious exception to this is when new information comes to light like a player does something stupid and gets arrested. Otherwise, my suggestion is don't listen to the rhetoric because it's just not worth it, and nobody knows what'll happen until the picks start being made.

• If Vegas were to put odds on how long it takes everyone's mock drafts to get crumbled up into a ball and thrown away my guess is it would be the third pick. Since there's not even a consensus best player (best player and top pick are two different things) there could be a ton of early trades this year. There were 11 in the first round last year, 12 the year before and 19 in 2012.

• There are just 10 NFL teams that currently don't have a former Alabama player on its roster: Dolphins, Browns, Steelers, Broncos, Chiefs, Giants, Redskins, Bears, Vikings and Buccaneers. Among them the team most likely to add one may be Kansas City as general manager John Dorsey has had former Nick Saban players on his teams before. The least likely is probably Minnesota as over the years I've head that Rick Spielman isn't fond of Crimson Tide products (Shame too, I'm a Vikings fan).

• Speaking of the Vikings, did anyone really believe they were going to trade running back Adrian Peterson? The only way that probably would have happened is if the Dallas Cowboys had called and said, "We'll give you everything back from the Herschel Walker deal."

• One guy I'd love to see the Vikings take, and every NFL fan should want on his or her team, is Harvard linebacker Zack Hodges. If you haven't read Lars Anderson's recent profile on him, "Left Parentless and Homeless, Harvard Star's Amazing Journey May Lead to the NFL," do yourself a favor and check it out.

• Food for thought from SI's Peter King: "I always wonder about an Alabama guy when Ozzie Newsome passes on him."

• If/when Alabama has a player selected in the first round it will tie Pittsburgh (1983-1989), Ohio State (1991-1997) and Florida (1997-2003) for the third-longest consecutive streak with at least one player drafted in the first round since the advent of the common draft in 1967. Alabama has a current streak of six consecutive drafts with at least one first-round pick. Miami (1995-2008) has the longest such streak with at least one first-round pick in 14 consecutive drafts.