Countless great players have taken the field at Alabama. There was only one Kenny Stabler.
It’s impossible to overstate the deep feelings Crimson Tide fans have for The Snake, who died Thursday after a quiet battle with colon cancer. He was the “Run in the Mud” hero against Auburn who did things with his feet few quarterbacks could do. He was the sentimental favorite who never won a national title as a starter after following Joe Namath and Steve Sloan, despite Alabama’s undefeated 1966 season with Stabler under center.
And yes, Stabler was the feisty, colorful free spirit -- for better and for worse -- who lived with reckless abandon on and off the field.
The numbers for Stabler at Alabama before his NFL career were pedestrian: 18 passing touchdowns, 18 interceptions, 59 percent completion rate and nine rushing touchdowns. As a senior, he threw 13 interceptions and famously got kicked off the team at one point by Bear Byrant for his off-field behavior.
“He didn’t show up for curfew, let’s say that,” recalled former Alabama wide receiver Dennis Homan, Stabler’s roommate. “He probably had two or three women here or there. I know when they did bed check he wasn’t there. I used to stuff his bed with pillows and had an old mop that I’d use as his head and was hoping they wouldn’t catch it. After a while, they found out and it didn’t work. Best thing that ever happened to him. When he came back, Snake was a lot more serious.”
Stats didn't define Stabler. His ability to make plays with his feet captured the imagination of Alabama fans. No Stabler play was more famous than the “Run in the Mud.” With Alabama trailing Auburn 3-0, Stabler ran through a muddy Legion Field for a 53-yard, game-winning touchdown.
To this day, a generation of Alabama fans can provide precise details about the play, where they were when it happened, and what it means to them. Stabler heard stories from fans for decades about the run -- and he patiently listened. It was a thrill for fans to remember. It was a thrill for Stabler to be remembered.
“I’m looking at the picture right now,” Homan said Thursday night by phone. “They talk about the ‘Run in the Mud.’ I always said, ‘Look at the block in the mud. I’m the guy in front of you that knocked that guy upside down so you could walk into the end zone.’ We always got a big laugh.”
Stabler returned to daily life around Alabama football in 1998 when he became a color analyst for the Crimson Tide broadcasts with play-by-play man Eli Gold. Stabler made an unusual condition before accepting the job: He had to bring his daughters with him to the broadcasts.
“So we set the girls up behind Eli and Kenny with a microphone that wasn’t connected to anything and they would broadcast the game, too, and they were really good,” said Wright Waters, who was general manager of the Crimson Tide Network at the time. “The biggest problem we had with Kenny on the radio is Eli would be setting up the formation and as the ball was snapped, Kenny would be yelling touchdown. He had this amazing ability to see the game.”
With his yellow legal pad, Stabler would diagram plays from the booth and predict outcomes.
“It reminded me of what Lane Kiffin did a few times last year running down the sideline already signaling touchdown,” Gold said. “Snake was that good a football mind. What made him so good on the air was he had that great mind, but he was able to explain stuff so the layman could understand and then do it in 12 seconds before the next play.”
The fans ate up Stabler. They wanted to be around him.
“Traveling with him as I did all those years, it was like walking through the airport with Paul McCartney,” Gold remembered. “He was a rock star. People of all ages, all ethnicities, wearing Bama shirts, wearing non-Bama shirts, they would flood him. He would never, ever turn down a request for an autograph or a picture.”
The drinking and free-spirit life continued as a broadcaster. Waters remembers once before an 11:30 a.m. game against Florida when a colleague told him he didn’t think Stabler would arrive for the pre-game show. Stabler had been out at all hours the night before.
“We know he closed Baumhower’s at midnight, he closed IHOP at 3 o’clock, and he closed Waffle House at 5:30,” Waters said. “At 8:30, he walks in ready to go and he’s prepared. Kenny could roll with the punches.”
In his later years, Stabler had a tumultuous personal life that became very public. He was arrested three times for drunk driving, ultimately causing him to leave the broadcast booth in 2009. Stabler owed more than $265,000 to the IRS for his company’s unpaid taxes over several years.
“He’s one of those guys you either love him or hate him,” Waters said. “He got into trouble with some things and there will be a certain group that will focus on that, and another group saw Kenny with his daughters, and saw Kenny as a professional, and saw Kenny as an athlete. It depends on which Kenny you knew. I was fortunate the Kenny I knew was the good guy and I liked him and I miss him already.”
Homan last spoke with Stabler about a year ago. In recent years, Homan said they discussed turning Stabler's life around with talks not that much different than when they were college roommates.
“Snake and I had some talks several times in college that I said, ‘Snake, you’re throwing away a career,’” Homan said. “We thought we had the tiger by the tail back then.
"Life means more than that. Through the years, we talked several times about getting his life straightened out. He said he was trying. I don’t know if he ever did. I’m just hoping and praying that he did.”
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