Saban

Michael Wilbon says Fins coach Nick Saban was "dumb" and "arrogant" for turning down a dinner invitation from President Georgie. He thinks it was apolitical - Saban just puts football before everything else in the world.

It's an amusing article, and worth a read, but I think Wilbon got it all wrong.

My first thought when I read about the refused invitation was that Saban, like all non-braindead Americans, can't stand Georgie. But he was smart enough not to say it and get Dixie Chicked.

Recall that the Dixie Chix came out against Georgie way before it was okay to do so. We forget about it, conveniently, but there was a time at the height of the build-up to the Iraq invasion when it was not allowable to criticize Georgie. You just couldn't do it. The Boy King was untouchable.

Repubs had the country twisted in a knot. Political criticism was treason. And Democrats went along with it.

So Nick was being smart. There was no escape from this dinner invitation, no way to go and remain non-political. No way to say: "I don't support this guy and I don't want to eat with him" without becoming the target of the fascist right.

So he said he was too busy. He gets to just be the coach of the Dolphins, not a political cause.

It says something about where the Junta has taken political discourse in the country.