Does the wince mean that he is being cautious about RW's return in terms of Ricky and the team (players will complain, he may quit again, etc)? Or is he just concerned about the media response. The two explanations quoted seem to go with the latter interpretation. He fondly recalled the results of his letting slip RW's interest in returning and he wants to make sure that it doesn't become a "circus" which could impact the "focus" of the team. His concerns are not so much about internal player politics, but the impact that media hype might have on team focus.
My hunch is that Saban, if he is as good a leader as he is cracked up to be, will have every confidence that he can control the situation from the inside, and will encourage the team not to let outside pressure get to them. The article indicates as much when it states
No real leader would allow any internal politics to develop from this situation. It would be different if there was a player actively trying to poison to the atmosphere (a Kobe type), that would be harder to deal wit. But this just requires some laying down the law of who's in charge. Saban says we give Ricky a shot till he succeeds or fall on his a$$, than thats what goes and no player would dare question him if he has done a good enough job in getting them to buy into his vision and into his person as HC and leader. [One fan pointed out that it would be surprising if he didn't consult with the team captains first to get a sense how they would handle it]. I personally think Saban is confident he can handle all that as so far he has shown some real leaderhip ability [of course we won't know for certain till the team actually starts playing]. My guess is he is much more frustrated with having to deal with crap from the media and the stress of having to pull his team away from a totally fabricated external media issue that he can't clamp down on unless he gets the right to the newspapers, television stations and radio stations down in florida.
Good night
D
Have fun dude
