On Tuesday, as part of its "50 States in 50 Days" segment, ESPN debated the most important person in Alabama sports history.
While Alabama was the birthplace of legends like Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Charles Barkley, Bart Starr, Bo Jackson, Satchel Paige and many more, ESPN "Pardon the Interruption" co-hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon agreed that due to the importance of college football in Alabama, it had to be between Crimson Tide coaches Paul "Bear" Bryant and Nick Saban, who each brought six national championships to Tuscaloosa.
"When you say Alabama and sports, the number one thing that everyone says is college football. This is completely legitimate. It is college football in Alabama," Kornheiser outlined. "And so, Bear Bryant would be — I'm not saying Bear Bryant is the most important, but he would be at the top of the list when you mentioned college football. You would mention Bear Bryant. You would also have to mention Nick Saban, who won all of those championships at the same place, at Alabama."
"And you can talk about college football forever there, coaching more than players. Famous players, Joe Namath, they come, and they go because you cannot pursue a professional sports career in Alabama," he continued. "You know, when this first came up, I said, well, Mays and Aaron, but ... there is no team in Alabama to play for, so they had to make fame and fortune somewhere else. And for me, it's Mays and Aaron, of course, as well, but I'm willing to concede that because most people in America think of Alabama first in college football, I can't split those coaches up. I can't split Bear Bryant and Nick Saban up, so I would just put an asterisk there. And I would give them both the bouquet of flowers."
Wilbon gave a slight nod to Bryant, pointing to the coach's efforts to integrate the University of Alabama in addition to establishing the Crimson Tide as a powerhouse.
"I'm going to give Bear Bryant the nod because he created it. You know what I mean?" he explained. "Saban sustained it."
"I covered Bryant's funeral ... and I am forever shaped as a journalist, as somebody who cares about sports, as a black man about going to Alabama, to Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, and covering the funeral of Bear Bryant and all that meant. As people can say, wait a minute, a segregationist, a person who then saw the integration of the University of Alabama football program, whether it was reluctant or not, all of that is historically important in a way that very few people are in very few states," Wilbon concluded.
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