Adams: Fulmer's day goes smoothly

Gordon McIntyre, an Auburn fan from Birmingham, wanted the coach's autograph on his mini-football, a souvenir from last year's SEC championship game.

Tommy Graham, 6, and his younger brother, Kip, wanted more of the same. Kip even identified himself as a Tennessee fan — a courageous act for a 4-year-old deep in the heart of Alabama.

Nothing was thrown. Nothing was shouted. And if James Smith hadn't been taking pictures, you would have concluded that Fulmer wasn't treated any differently than the other three SEC coaches who shared the stage Wednesday.

Smith, who was wearing an Alabama-red sports shirt, snapped pictures of Fulmer as the coach stood in the hotel lobby, just before leaving for the airport.

"What do you think of Coach Fulmer?" a bystander asked.

"I think he's a rat," said Smith of Scottsboro, Ala.

Unlike so many other Alabama fans who blame Fulmer for testifying to NCAA investigators against the Tide, Smith doesn't just make idle rat chat. He pulls out his wallet and withdraws a card which reads, "philtherat.com." The back side of the card reads, "Nothing squeals like a rat."

Clever, huh?

Since Smith's opinion of Fulmer falls somewhat short of hero worship, you might wonder what he planned to do with the pictures.

"I'm going to put them on the floor and mash them like a worm," he said.

Smith is 61 years older than Kip, but at that moment, it was a tossup as to who was more mature: Kip, who held up three fingers as his older brother said, "He's 4;" or "Smitty," who spoke so eloquently of rats and worms.

He's one of those Alabama fans who won't ever get it: Fulmer isn't to blame for Alabama's probation; Alabama is.

On this afternoon Fulmer was forceful in explaining his role in the NCAA investigation against Alabama. Rather than take a stance of "I'll only take football-related questions," he read a long opening statement in which he defended his actions and decried the actions of others in a Memphis recruiting battle that turned criminal.

"Obviously, there's a lot of interest in all the trial stuff and a lot of intense media coverage — especially here in Alabama — and theatrics that were worthy of an Oscar," he said in addressing the print media. (There were) legal battles that went on and even some threats to some of the people involved and their families, including mine. And I am not over that as far as being angry about it."

The threat to Fulmer's family was a revelation to the media. When asked about the threats later in the interview session, he said, "I really don't want to go further with that. A lot of the local guys knew that it was out there, and I did not take that lightly at all."

He wouldn't elaborate, other than to say the threats were received on his cell phone.

Fulmer was accompanied in Birmingham by two plainclothes policemen, Sam Brown of Knoxville and Mike Flippo, who is a member of the Irondale, Ala., Police Department, and the Birmingham Big Orange Club.

Everything went smoothly during the interview sessions, and Fulmer answered all other questions except those related to Tom Culpepper, a former Alabama recruiting analyst whom Tide fans accuse of conspiring with Fulmer to bring down their program. Last week, Culpepper was the loser in a $30 million dollar slander suit filed by former Alabama recruiting coordinator Ronnie Cottrell.

"What are your feelings about Tom Culpepper and the recent judgment against him?" Fulmer was asked.

Said Fulmer: "That's one of those things that since it's kind of ongoing, that I'm not an attorney and I would answer it in the wrong fashion, so I sure don't want to pour any gas on any fires anywhere. I will let the attorneys handle that one."

Fulmer also deferred to his attorneys last year in choosing not to attend this media event. They were concerned about jurisdiction in another suit, which originally was filed in Tuscaloosa by the mother of a former UT and Alabama player, Kenny Smith, against Fulmer. The suit was later thrown out by a Tuscaloosa judge, then refiled in Knoxville.

Although Fulmer did address the SEC media via teleconference last year, the SEC still fined him $10,000 for not attending.

"I really regret that I wasn't able to be here last year and hate all the circumstances that kept me from being here," he said. "I haven't seen the commissioner yet, but if you see him, make sure he knows that I was here, because it can be expensive when you don't show up."

That was a rare, light moment during Fulmer's turn at the lectern. He was his most serious in emphasizing the outcome of the NCAA investigation.

"The end results were two things," he said. "It was a criminal investigation and a conviction (of Logan Young, an Alabama booster from Memphis).

"The college football system of self-governance prevailed; the facts that came through all of that was there was cheating in Memphis, Tennessee."

And the coach is ready to move on.

"As we stand here today, the court cases are almost done," he said. "Some people may choose to wallow in the stench of cheating for publicity purposes.

"The only writing I'm looking for is in the SEC East, and a chance to be a part of the SEC championship game."