Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said Alabama coach Nick Saban agreed to leave a footnote explaining Saban’s position on the blocking Senate rule change from the public version of a letter sent to West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, and from a press release that published the letter earlier. week.

“Instructor Saban and I agreed that because the letter focused on the merits of the Freedom of Voting Act and the disruption was not discussed with everyone signing the letter, it is not necessary to include a footnote in the letter for it to be distributed publicly,” Tagliabue wrote in a statement filed late in the post. He appeared Wednesday to AL.com after requesting comment on Tuesday. As a result, our press release and the publicly released letter did not address the issue of disruption.”

The January 13 letter — co-signed by Saban and other West Virginia sports figures at Jerry West, Oliver Lack and Daryl Tully — urge to pass of the Voting Rights Bill currently under consideration by the Senate. The bill would standardize election laws across the country and restore provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Democrats have enough votes to pass the bill, but they will need 60 votes to block Republicans’ bid to stall and end the debate over the bill. Manchin, a longtime friend of Saban’s, and Arizona Senator Kirsten Senema have resisted Democratic leadership efforts to change the Senate’s stalling rules in order to pass the bill. Their resistance would almost certainly prevent the bill from being passed, even though Manchin backed the content of the legislation itself.

The letter sent to Manchin, endorsed “measures to provide electors with a range of opportunities to obtain and cast a legal ballot, including strong in-person, early, and absentee voting options,” and also addressed the election laws of individual states that, “seek to secure a partisan advantage from By eliminating credible practices with proven safeguards and alternative practices ready to be tampered with.”

However, a footnote was included in the letter that was I mentioned tuesday CNN reads, “Coach Saban is not in favor of getting rid of Senate stalling. He believes this would destroy the checks and balances that we must have in this democracy. Others who have signed this letter take no position on this aspect of Senate politics.” .

In his statement to AL.com, Tagliabue confirmed that the footnote appeared in a file A copy of the message Last week he sent to Manchin as well as Senators Chuck Schumer, Amy Klobuchar and Tim Kaine. But Tagliabue said he spoke with Saban on Friday to consider making the letter public, and Saban agreed to keep the footnote out of the publicly distributed letter as well as Monday press release around it.

Tagliabue, 81, served as an NFL commissioner from 1989 until his retirement prior to the 2006 season, which was Saban’s second and last as coach for the Miami Dolphins. Tagliabue now works as a senior counsel for a law firm in Washington, DC.

Saban declined to comment Wednesday night on Tagliabue’s statement, but Manchin said on Tuesday at the Capitol that Tagliabue was responsible To remove the footnote from the general version of the message.

“Nick Saban at the bottom of his letter – which they didn’t put, Paul Tagliabue didn’t put what Nick Saban wrote at the bottom, his footnote, he supports the stall,” Manchin reporters. “Don’t get rid of the deactivation. Now why let that go automatically?”

But Manchin emphasized that Saban supports the voting rights bill, which is a key legislative priority for Joe Biden.

Nick Saban’s message was straightforward. All of them [the co-signers] You want the right to vote, right? “We all want the right to vote,” Manchin said on Tuesday. “I think everyone – we should all support the right to vote. But not break the rules.”

Saban’s pro-voting rights bill’s stance continued to spark a backlash Tuesday from South Carolina Representative Ralph Norman, a Republican, who tweeted, “Nick Saban should focus on winning national championships rather than destroying our elections.” The tweet was later deleted.

Mike Rudak is an Alabama winning reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter Tweet embed.