Nunnie on the Sideline
By Nunnie Robinson, WG Sports Editor
My PoliSports emphasis will continue….
It is obvious to me that our democratic republic is being governed by the wrong people and that the Republican-led Congress has abdicated its constitutional responsibilities. Todd Blanche, 47’s choice for Attorney General and now the nation’s Attorney General, is, in my view, the epitome of corruption. His involvement with Ghislaine Maxwell, including his July 2025 interview with her shortly before she was transferred to a minimum-security federal prison camp, and his role in the handling and redaction of the Epstein files have raised serious questions about the independence and integrity of the Department of Justice.
In essence, I believe he will be 47’s Attorney General, not the country’s. Democracy’s demise and degradation can be unequivocally attributed to 45–47 MAGA supporters and a cowardly Congress.
Bear Bryant coached Alabama from 1958 to 1982, winning six national championships and 13 conference championships. Granted, some of those teams were composed entirely of white players. Although Bryant had begun recruiting Black athletes before Alabama’s 1970 loss to USC, Wilbur Jackson received an athletic scholarship in 1970 and was on Alabama’s freshman team that season, making him ineligible for the varsity game under the freshman eligibility rules of the time.
In 1970, at Birmingham’s Legion Field, the USC Trojans defeated Alabama behind their all-Black backfield: quarterback Jimmy Jones and running backs Clarence Davis and Sam “The Bam” Cunningham. Cunningham scored two rushing touchdowns and gained 135 yards. That game became a major catalyst for Alabama’s integration efforts, although Bryant had already begun moving toward recruiting Black players. In the fall of 1971, Wilbur Jackson and John Mitchell became the first Black players to join Alabama’s varsity football team.
When Bryant retired in 1982, roughly one-third of his team was Black.
Nick Saban exceeded Bryant’s success at Alabama, winning six national championships, nine SEC championships, and 10 SEC Western Division championships during his tenure from 2007 to 2023. At the conclusion of Saban’s tenure, approximately 80% of the team was Black, as is the case with many SEC football programs—not only in football but across several revenue-generating sports.
Now juxtapose that reality with Alabama politics under 47-loving Governor Kay Ivey, who signed legislation restricting the use of public funds for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and placed restrictions on the promotion or endorsement of so-called “divisive concepts.” The legislation specifically limits certain DEI programs and activities involving public entities.
Ivey has also supported Alabama’s redistricting position in the ongoing legal battle over congressional and state Senate maps. In 2026, she celebrated court decisions allowing Alabama-drawn maps to be used, including the 2023 congressional map and the 2021 State Senate map. Critics have argued and I believe emphatically that these maps weaken Black political representation.
These policies, in my opinion, do absolutely nothing to promote the general welfare of the public. Instead, they focus on red-meat issues such as marriage equality, LGBTQ+ rights, abortion, and Medicaid in ways designed to rile up the MAGA base.
That is why I will continue to call on our athletes to select and attend colleges and universities that respect the rights constitutionally guaranteed to all Americans.
So, as you watch our student-athletes compete with great effort, zeal, and love for the Heart of Dixie and the Magnolia State, consider how their humanity can apparently be treated as though it is not even worth a second thought.
P.S. I will continue to point out the grave hypocrisy of the good ole’ South, especially when it involves politics, police brutality and misconduct—particularly against minorities—and the continued romanticization of the Confederacy.
