Either way, it wasn’t smart.

Either way, head coach Kalen DeBoer should rip that and any other foolishness out of the playbook, and waste no time doing it. Pretending to shoot a basketball during a football play is the sort of thing that would probably go largely unnoticed at schools where winning isn’t paramount. But it’s paramount at a tradition-rich, high-stakes program like Alabama, to the exclusion of on-field sideshows. A pretty large chunk of fans on some of the country’s westernmost campuses might’ve had a “that’s cool” reaction. Alabama fans, in my experience, look at the same thing and think “that’s weak.”

The argument that it’s just a game and “let kids have their fun” fell apart the moment Sheridan suggested that it was actually part of the play. The coach owned it, so the only thing that can be inferred from his answer is that the coaching staff was having fun.

On a day that was anything but fun.

As for the argument that it was inconsequential because the two receivers weren’t involved in the play, that’s both true, and conveniently non-responsive to question of optics. Inconsequential though it might’ve been, it modeled unseriousness at the worst possible time — a time when an Alabama football season is quickly slipping into the realm of forgettable. And the notion that it came from the playbook rather than the imagination of two young men doesn’t exactly align with what DeBoer has been saying of late about the need for serious focus.

Inconsequential?

The people who write checks to help Alabama’s NIL efforts probably weren’t amused, and they’re pretty consequential. It was a goofy display that had zero upside, and the downside that it came across as emblematic of a larger discipline problem on a team that lacked discipline on Saturday to the tune of 15 penalties. Legendary UA coach Nick Saban was fond of saying “if you’re not coaching it, you’re letting it happen.”