AJ McCarron: A Glorified Game Manager Who should Shut Up About His Former Team
AJ McCarron is a joke.
He is an average quarterback with very questionable character. His narcissism consistently gets the best of him, and it showed again this week.
Many of you are familiar by now that McCarron earlier this week said this year’s Alabama team lacks “true leaders,” referring to their loss to Ole Miss. He also talked about Saban sometimes hamstringing his offensive coordinators.
McCarron backtracked of course the next day, in very weak fashion, saying that he meant this team lacks “vocal leaders.” Perhaps he backtracked because he realized how ridiculous he is. Or maybe he wanted to avoid getting called out the way I’m about to call him out.
These statements reek of jealousy.
McCarron seems jealous that Alabama’s offense looks better with Blake Sims than it ever did with him. He seems jealous that this team is still capable of being a powerhouse without him. And he seems upset about the truth: that Saban, the defense, and the offensive line, not him, are the reason for his success.
This glorified game manager was asked only to not lose games at Alabama, and in three years as a starter with the best talent around him, he still couldn’t avoid doing that once a year. Yet he now has the nerve to criticize the first Alabama team after his era for one loss?
Let’s all sit back and reminisce on the number of undefeated seasons AJ McCarron had at Alabama: 0.
AJ, where was your leadership your first year as a starter when you guys lost that regular season 9-6 game to LSU and your offense looked pathetic in 2011? Where was your leadership in 2012 when you let Johnny Manziel torch you guys in the first half, digging a huge hole that was too big to climb out of? Where was your leadership last year when your team clearly lacked focus in its loss to Auburn and then to Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl?
How dare he criticize the coach and football team that made him! How dare he bring up leadership issues in the Alabama locker room! McCarron was made out to be a winner because he was blessed with the greatest offensive line, an amazing coaching staff, and the deepest amount of talent ever on a football team. And he still managed to blow a shot at the national championship last year. What a joke!
Greg McElroy actually carried the Tide to an undefeated 14-0 season, and unlike McCarron, he has never trashed the program. McCarron had to back into both national championship games after his losses in 2011 and 2012 thanks to other teams losing. McElroy made sure that wouldn’t be an issue.
Yet McCarron acts like he’s the official Alabama spokesman. Alabama made McCarron. It would have been fine without him, but he would have been nothing without Alabama.
I applaud Fran Tarkenton for saying what he said. He noted that McCarron was fortunate to play in the Alabama program and is an “average qb at best” who couldn’t play in any other system. See that full report here.
I’m going to take it a step further, though. It’s time to stop letting McCarron get away with little subtleties he’s pulled throughout his career. His obvious narcissism goes back beyond this jealous rant.
Remember the 2012 national championship game? The Tide were blowing out Notre Dame. And in the second half, on one play, McCarron got the play clock wrong. He was forced to call a timeout, and to avoid putting the embarrassment on him, guess what he did. On national television, he screamed at his center in Barrett Jones, blatantly showing him up and trying to put the mistake on him to cover his own behind.
How pathetic that was! McCarron messed up the count, he knew he messed up the count, yet to cover himself he attempted to publicly humiliate his center, who was playing his last game and had spent two years shoving around 300 pound linemen to keep McCarron from ever getting touched. That is shameful.
Then came the Auburn loss in 2013. After Chris Davis had the “Kick Six,” did McCarron stay with his team? Nope. He went over to hug his family and his model, beautiful girlfriend, acting like he’s still the king of the team and above everybody else. Please. Those guys made him, and when they weren’t there to protect him against Oklahoma, he looked pathetic.
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This guy is completely out of bounds with his comments, and they were flat-out disgraceful. Stephen A. Smith said it best on First Take Thursday when he called it betrayal of a former coach who was able to make him look like he actually belonged in college football.
McCarron questioned the leadership of a football program that made him. Let me question the leadership and character of McCarron. He has a track record of blaming other people, and even when he’s gone, he can’t help himself.
AJ, the program is Nick Saban’s program. You were just a pawn. And you have no right to ever say anything about him or your former teammates. It’s not their fault that you’re not good enough for the NFL and you would give anything to be back playing college football again.
But just as McCarron left them and went his own way after Alabama’s loss to Auburn in 2013, he now can’t help but throw the team under the bus without him there. What a disgrace!