by Glynn Wilson

While most of the country and the states of Alabama and Texas were taking a break Thursday from the mundane affairs of business and government to revel in the national championship between the Crimson Tide and the Longhorns, a Tuscaloosa businessman with a vendetta against Bob Riley used the Rose Bowl as an unlikely setting to attack the Republican governor.

A banner with the words “Impeach Corrupt Alabama Governor Bob Ri­ley” was towed through the air over the Rose Bowl before the game (see photo above).

Officials with a banner-tow­ing company told the AP they were hired for about $3,000 to fly over the Rose Bowl stadium for about four hours before the game. A longtime Riley critic, Tus­caloosa businessman Stan Pate, took credit for the sign, saying he wanted everybody to see that “Bob Riley is a phony.”

Riley flew to Pasadena for the game ostensibly on an industry-re­cruiting trip to California, according to the AP, although it was not reported whether he took the state plane or flew commercial.

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Did the Media Know, and Keep It Quiet?

by Glynn Wilson

There’s much talk on the radio and the Web about the hit that knocked Texas Quarterback Colt McCoy out of the national championship game, but very little mention of the fact that Alabama Quarterback Greg McElroy was playing with two broken ribs.

“I cracked my ribs in the third quarter against Florida,” McElroy said outside the locker room in Pasadena, according to ESPN. “Two of them — the ninth and the 10th. Left side. It’s bad. I got it numbed up before the game and it was killing me at halftime.”

Which brings up an interesting question about the relationship between the media in Alabama and the team’s need for secrecy. For two days, the ABC affiliate in Birmingham, the station with the broadcast rights to the game, ran packages asking “what if?” one of the teams’ quarterbacks were injured and had to leave the playing field.

Did the sports broadcasters in Alabama know McElroy had cracked ribs? This injury was never revealed in any news story before the game. What if they knew and kept it quiet?

McElroy certainly didn’t look like the same quarterback who went 12-for-18 for 239 yards in the SEC championship game victory over the Florida Gators in Atlanta.

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