Auburn Tigers football coach Hugh Freeze was a controversial hire that sparked a wild media reaction that sometimes bordered on slander. It's not a stretch to say that Freeze was straight-up maligned by the local media that covered his exploits while with the Ole Miss Rebels over the state line to the west.
If AU was willing to walk through the fire with that, why would they have a problem with Bruce Pearl, who simply spouts political opinions?
Sports Illustrated's Kevin Sweeney debunked ESPN's Michael Wilbon's silly theory that AD John Cohen and the rest of the Auburn athletic department forced Pearl out.
"Regardless of Pearl’s political leanings, the idea that there’d be pressure to get a Final Four head coach out of there is pretty funny," Sweeney wrote.
"Auburn hired a football coach who used a school phone to call escorts and they’re going to run Pearl out of town for his tweets?"
Wilbon spouted his nonsense on Pardon The Interruption on Monday afternoon following Pearl's retirement from the Auburn Tigers basketball program.
"He had become a divisive person, it seems to me, intentionally. And I hope there was pressure to just get him out," Wilbon said.
No need to waste any hope on that, Mr. Wilbon.
As On3's Justin Hokanson pointed out, Bruce "wasn’t likely to coach past this year, so stepping down before the season makes sense." Hokanson added that "John Cohen had already agreed to give Steven a multi-year deal, if and when the time came."
There was a plan in place for Pearl's succession. And it was literally his son.
Doesn't sound like someone who was forced out. Being a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump and the Jewish State of Israel in a deep red county in East Central Alabama doesn't get you fired when you're the best coach in program history.
Especially when the football program employs the most controversial coaching figure in the SEC.