Contrary to a comment made by an unnamed scout to the Tuscaloosa News, a league source tells us that the University of Florida has not informed NFL teams to stay away.
Yet.
Meanwhile, two more teams have confirmed that Alabama coach Nick Saban has closed practices to scouts until further notice. As one source explained it, the message was communicated not by letter sent to each team, but via a website that the 32 franchise use to coordinate on-campus visits.
So, basically, no team is exempt from the Wrath of Saban.
The move has left some scouts feeling bewildered. “We are just trying to do our jobs,” one high-level scout said by phone earlier this morning. “We are not the distraction. How would college coaches feel is this was done to them?”
And that’s a great point. College coaches need access to high school practices in order to decide which players to recruit. What Saban is doing to NFL scouts is no different than a high school coach Nick Saban to take his golden, forked tongue back to Tuscaloosa.
“It’s so misguided,” the scout said as to Saban’s approach. “It makes no sense. We’re all trying to play football and promote the game and generate revenue.”
As Peter King and Bob Papa explained during my impromptu Wednesday morning visit them on Sirius NFL Radio, Saban needs to consider the impact of his position on recruiting -- and he also needs to take responsibility for his own role in players getting paid while supposedly operate under his watch as amateurs.
Then again, perhaps Saban’s overriding strategy is to blame the NFL in the hopes of deflecting attention from his own responsibility for the situation.