Nick Saban discussed Alabama football’s decision to let freshman defensive back, Tony Mitchell, return to team at SEC Media Days.
Saban announced Mitchell was suspended from the team in March after he was arrested in Florida and charged with possession of marijuana with the intent to sell and/or distribute. The former five-star was reinstated into the program after he was placed on probation, and his case was closed. Mitchell’s name was mentioned when Saban was asked about how a player could ‘regain the trust’ of Alabama’s staff after an incident.
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“I think there’s probably some occasion where most of us in this room, including myself, did something in our life that probably wasn’t a great choice and a great decision,” Saban answered. “And we always want to try to create a path for players who have made a mistake to get a second chance, but also to help educate them on what they can learn from the poor decision or judgment that they actually made. And hopefully, those things don’t affect other people. I think it’s much more serious when those things affect other people.
And so hopefully the penalties and the time missed and the education received are all going to be beneficial to the learning experience of this young man so that he has an opportunity to get an education, become a better person that has a better chance to be successful in life and also can contribute to the team.
So there’s a process that we try to go through when we can give players a second chance. If players continue to make mistakes over and over and over and over and don’t seem to learn and make progress, they will lose the respect of their teammates. And I think that when that occurs, then maybe it would be better if a guy was not involved in the program and would take the opportunity someplace else. But that hasn’t happened with Tony Mitchell.”
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