RE: AAFL Team Alabama Newsletter: November 15, 2007

 

Calm down 'Bama fans. Calm down: Alabama legend Jackie Sherrill is still going to be a coach for the All American Football League in Alabama.

This Bear Bryant protégé and two time national champ as an Alabama player is just not going to be the head coach. Family issues prevent that. But he still loves the league and what we are doing. He’ll probably be at our training camp and making personal appearances for us.

He even offered to "coach the coaches."

So that is great and we’ll keep coach Sherrill and his family in our prayers.

Rumors of Sherrill’s involvement with Team Alabama got a lot of players and fans excited.

Bama great and NFL vet Reggie Myles kept up the drum beat on his MySpace blog:

"This week I am going to be on Talk of Champions, again that show can be heard at www.rollcrimsontide.com . I am continuing to lift weights three days a week and run daily. Also, here is a little truth to the rumor mill...we are coming really close to naming Jackie Sherrill head coach of the Alabama team. I am very excited about the opportunity to play for coach Sherrill. He recruited me coming out of high school when he was still at Mississippi State and he coached my brother there. Coach Sherrill played at Alabama under Bear Bryant and helped lead the school to two national titles, so obviously he has strong Alabama ties and I really cannot wait to play for him. You all have a great week!"

Then Alonzo Ephraim joined in on his MySpace blog:

Friday, November 09, 2007

Jackie Sherrill is coming home...

Jackie Sherrill is coming home. That's right. The AAFL hired Sherrill to be the head coach of Team Alabama. Sherrill, who played for Alabama under Coach Bear Bryant from 1962-1965, has had quite a coaching career. He landed his first head coaching job in Washington State in 1976, but left there the next year to lead the Pittsburg Panthers to four winning seasons, finishing in 1981 with a record of 50-9-1. From there Sherrill went to Texas A&M to replace Tom Wilson as head coach of the Aggies, winning three consecutive SEC championships in 1985, 86 and 87. As an Aggie, he's known for starting the tradition of the "12th Man Kickoff Team", which was a group of regular students who just walked on instead of being recruited, kind of like a militia. The "12th Man Kickoff Team" was feared by many players because they had no regard for their own personal safety. They just wanted to make a name for themselves. They were nicknamed the "suicide squad". In 1991, Sherrill was hired as head coach at Mississippi State where he led the Bulldogs to a record of 75-75-2 in thirteen seasons, winning an SEC west title in 1998, a 10-2 record and a 12 ranking in 1999. Sherrill retired in 2003.

Team Alabama welcomes Coach Sherrill. If anyone can lead this team to victory, Coach Sherrill can!

And for all the talk on the internet, email and blogs, there was still lots of good old fashioned 'talk at the corner store’ Alabama-style going on.

I heard about it from Lance Taylor, whose dad also played for Alabama and has been a big Sherrill fan for a long time.

The mark of the Bear is all over Team Alabama -- as anything that has anything to do with college football in Alabama has to have. Sherrill will be joining other Bryant players associated with Team Alabama: Ken Stabler and John Hannah -- both of whom serve on the Team Alabama advisory board.

This Saturday, I will be joining Reggie Myles, Marcus Spencer and other Crimson Tide vets at the rollcrimsontide.com tent, signing autographs on the quad before the game.

Look close -- and you might even see on the greatest running backs in the history of the state of Alabama: Joe Cribbs. Joe is the president of Team Alabama. And after a great career in the NFL which included honors such as Rookie of the Year and the Pro Bowl, Cribbs today is considered football royalty both in and out of Alabama.

Come on by and say Hey. Tell’em Rudy sent you. Lots more player news next week.

 

Rudy Griffin
Team Alabama
All American Football League