{"id":105521,"date":"2022-10-23T11:35:14","date_gmt":"2022-10-23T11:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/joseph-goodman-nick-saban-misses-the-mark-with-jermaine-burton\/"},"modified":"2022-10-23T11:35:14","modified_gmt":"2022-10-23T11:35:14","slug":"joseph-goodman-nick-saban-misses-the-mark-with-jermaine-burton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/joseph-goodman-nick-saban-misses-the-mark-with-jermaine-burton\/","title":{"rendered":"Joseph Goodman: Nick Saban misses the mark with Jermaine Burton"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nick Saban says he was scared in the moments after Tennessee’s victory against Alabama, and Saban said that Jermaine Burton was scared, too.<\/p>\n

That seems to be the reasoning that Saban used when he made the decision to play Burton in Alabama’s 30-6 victory against Mississippi State rather than suspend his receiver for striking a female Tennessee fan. A video surfaced after Alabama’s 52-49 loss to Tennessee of Burton reaching out and making contact with a fan in the wild moments immediately following the game.<\/p>\n

It was bad.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/b>Everything Saban said after Alabama’s victory against Mississippi State<\/b><\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/b>Rewinding Alabama win over Mississippi State<\/b><\/p>\n

Should Burton have been suspended for hitting a fan? Should he have been kicked off the team for striking a woman? These were fair questions after Saban said earlier this week that Alabama was gathering more information about what happened. Let’s not downplay any of this because it was a serious situation that demanded critical attention.<\/p>\n

Obviously, and this should go without saying, but striking a woman cannot be excused. Burton was wrong for what he did. Period.<\/p>\n

After looking into it, Saban said he made the decision not to suspend Burton, but to provide counseling for his player. As for Burton’s playing status, he started against Mississippi State and contributed to the blowout victory on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Here’s everything that Saban said when I asked him after the game against Mississippi State about what went into the decision to play Burton.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I don’t know how many of you have been in a situation like that, but I talked to him,\u201d Saban said. \u201cHe was scared. I was scared. Some of our other players were scared. I think you learn to respect other people because we have a responsibility to do that regardless of the circumstance that we’re in.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, I talked to the guy. We have him in a counseling program. It’s not an anger management program, which people announced today. Nobody ever said that. That’s not the problem. That’s not the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it’s about having the proper respect for other people. And I didn’t think it was necessary to suspend the guy. So, if you knew the whole story, then maybe you wouldn’t either, but I’m not going to divulge that.\u201d<\/p>\n