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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. _ University of Alabama coach Nick Saban is known for having a guest speaker each night of training camp, but didn’t wait this year to have someone address the team about domestic violence.
“We’ve had three speakers to this point, and one of them has been on domestic violence,” he said Sunday afternoon during the Crimson Tide’s annual media day. “That is definitely an area where we want to continue to educate the players. The importance of respect for other people, compassion for other people, and treating people the way you’d like to be treated yourself.
“We teach our players they should not evaluate the circumstances of someone else in terms of how they treat them. Every person should be treated with the kind of respect you would like to be treated with regardless of their station, anyone from whoever cleans the building, cleans the locker room, to whoever the president of the university is. The right way to treat all those people is the right way. There is not some other way.”
Domestic violence has been a hot topic of late in the sports world, especially in the wake of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice’s arrest and ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith being suspended a week for implying that women can provoke domestic violence.
Saban didn’t disclose who made the presentation, but many of the Crimson Tide’s speakers are essentially a regular part of camp, including a presentation from the compliance department and a media specialist on how to deal with reporters and conduct interviews.
Motivational speakers and people who can help with the mental part of the game have also been regular visitors, including the Pacific Institute, a Seattle-based company that has conducted mental conditioning, IMG Performance Institute director Trevor Moawad, and Dr. Kevin Elko, who calls himself a performance consultant.
Each camp also includes a couple of headliners like New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi last year, former NBA player Chris Herren to talk about overcoming his drug-abuse problems, and former player and director of football operations for the NFL Gene Washington about life after a career in sports.
Christopher Walsh has covered Alabama football since 2004 and is the author of 19 books. In his free time, he writes about college football.
