Don’t be surprised if you see Alabama offensive tackle Cam Robinson on the field for the first game of the season.
Robinson and teammate Hootie Jones were arrested in their hometown of Monroe, La., in May after they were allegedly found smoking marijuana in a car in the parking lot of a closed park in the early morning.
However, the two players had the charges dropped against them in June when the Ouachita Parish District Attorney said that “the main reason I’m doing this is that I refuse to ruin the lives of two young men who have spent their adolescence and teenage years, working and sweating, while we were all in the air conditioning.”
The two players have reportedly faced internal discipline from the football team despite having the charges against them dropped. Wednesday, Alabama coach Nick Saban told the SEC Network he’d make a decision on the status of Robinson and Jones for the USC game at a later date.
“After looking at the case we found out there were a lot of circumstances around this case, as the prosecutor did in choosing not to charge these guys, that I can’t really discuss right here now,” Saban said. “Regardless of that circumstance, our stance is that we want to everything we can to get these guys to change their behavior in terms of making better choices and decisions and both guys have done a lot of thing internally, whether it was police ride alongs or community service … if they continue to do these things in a positive way, I’m not sure that – we’ll make the decision at a later time if they’ll be suspended for the first game or not.”
Saban first made the point about the internal discipline given to the players before his appearance on the network set and told reporters (via CBS Sports) that Robinson and Jones “do these changes to change their behavior and help these other people, and that is ongoing. If they continue to do that, that will be how this matter is handled internally.”
The comment incited an exchange between Saban and SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum about the players’ arrests and the criticism Alabama would face if the players weren’t externally disciplined via suspensions. Perhaps if the prosecutor had provided a better explanation that saying he didn’t want to charge two football players, Saban wouldn’t be in such an awkward position defending his team’s discipline of its star offensive tackle and a defensive back.
“There were four people in the car,” Saban said. “Why did the two football players get arrested and the other two guys not get arrested? There’s now law about concealed weapons in Lousiana … So why did they search the car just because there was a gun on his seat?”
Saban then cited being innocent until being proven guilty immediately after saying he didn’t condone the behavior exhibited by his players.
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“There are a lot of questions there that are reasons that there weren’t charges brought against these guys. Now do we condone the behavior? No. But you’re innocent until proven guilty in this country, regardless whether you get convicted in the media or not which is what you’re doing to these players,” Saban said as he gestured towards Finebaum.
Finebaum responded and said “I’m not convicting anyone. I’m just asking you why you’re not going to suspend Cam Robinson for the Southern Cal game.”
“Because I’m not going to convict them in the public,” Saban replied perhaps tipping his had there would be no suspension at all for the two players. “And you said that I was going to criticized by the you and the public and the media because I’m not going to suspend them. And I don’t really care about that. That’s the end of the conversation.”
Did Paul @Finebaum strike a nerve with Nick Saban on the Cam Robinson situation? Watch:https://t.co/BySCqTJbB2
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) July 13, 2016
Saban and Finebaum continued their conversation after Saban’s segment ended on-air.
While the audio on the video isn’t strong, here’s what took place off-air from Al.com:
Within earshot of media, Saban launched into a four-letter tirade directed at Finebaum. In it, he used his fingers to note the small amount of marijuana found in the car and insinuated the arresting officers were disgruntled LSU fans.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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