There are many, many terrible aspects to the Alliance of American Football's sudden demise, and the fact that we may have seen the last of Steve Spurrier in a competitive setting has to be near the top of the list. The man has a competitive streak that, if scientists ever found a way to bottle it, would be potent enough to kill a full grown male grizzly bear, but it's coated in a signature east Tennessee swang that makes it go down easier.
We got Exhibit No. 1,087 on Tuesday, when Spurrier was interviewed by the Orlando media outside the Apollos' headquarters.
"We've got to be the champs, right?" Spurrier said. "We're 7-1 and the next teams are 5-3."
Arizona Hotshots head coach Rick Neuheisel chimed in to say his 5-3 squad should be considered champions by virtue of a BCS-esque tiebreaker.
On Wednesday, Spurrier responded.
It can be hard to determine someone's tone on the Internet but make no mistake: the HBC was absolutely serious.
Spurrier is 73 years old. If the AAF doesn't find new life in the form of a different billionaire who'd actually like to see the league play football, this is likely it for Spurrier's coaching career. Unfortunate as that may be, the silver lining is that Spurrier leaves the game as the winningest head coach in respective histories of Florida (122 wins), South Carolina (86) and the Alliance of American Football (7).
Long live Steven Orr Spurrier.