Bad play aside, calling Jalen Hurts the N-word awful

Jalen Hurts can come off cocky. A little standoffish.

But he didn’t deserve to be called the N-word on Twitter.

He wasn’t playing well in the Iron Bowl. But he shouldn’t have been called a racist word.

Let’s just cut to the chase here.

There is a big elephant in the room when it comes to having a black quarterback leading Alabama.

Has it happened before Hurts? Yes. Probably will happen again, but when you have ignorant people out there resorting to calling him the N-word just because he’s not playing well in the Iron Bowl, it further feeds to the idea that there is still significant racial issues in the state.

If you don’t care what color the quarterback is at Alabama, good for you. Those who do, they know who they are and should be ashamed of themselves.

Let’s make another thing clear.

Not all Alabama fans feel that way about Hurts. Some truly love to watch him play. Even the ones who hated how he was performing still have love for him.

However, some chose to go racial when criticizing him. See, whenever someone is touched to his or her core emotionally, the truth comes out. If you're really a nice person, that part of you will emerge when bad times arise.

If you're just ugly on the inside, it'll show when push comes to shove. That that happened on both side on Twitter when it came to how Hurts was playing.

Got to give Twitter props for shutting down the account of @BradCabs, but it should've never come to that because he shouldn't have gone there.

What's just as sad is he's not the only person who feels that way

Also have to give props to Alabama fans for their reaction to the racist tweet. Former Tide linebacker Nico Johnson later apologized for how he reacted, but he said something that shows how racism lights the emotional fire.

However, there must be some serious short term memory going around. Didn’t Hurts just throw the game-winning touchdown pass with 25 seconds left to beat Mississippi State two weeks ago?

Now he’s the N-word. Really? Hurts is 24-2 as a starter, not 2-24. He could be 25-1 with a national championship ring and MVP for scoring the game-winning touchdown against Clemson had Deshaun Watson not pulled off an epic final drive.

Now Hurts is a N-word? Wow. Truth is, there are fans who saw him as that before Saturday's Iron Bowl. The loss just gave them reason to go there.

Has he had great players around him and the best coach in college football? Yes, but he’s gotten the job done for the most part and one loss, even if it is to Auburn, shouldn’t have fans calling him the N-word.

The most popular player on any football team is the backup quarterback. There have been Alabama fans calling for Tua Tagovailoa to play all season.

That was taken up a few notches during the Iron Bowl, but fans didn’t have to go racial in calling for Tagovailoa to replace Hurts.

Hurts got off Twitter and Instagram before the season, but I’m sure he’s heard about what is being said about him. Truth be told, Hurts wasn’t the only Alabama player playing bad in the Iron Bowl.

Plus, Auburn’s defense had something to do with it, too. The Tigers got after Hurts as well as took away his favorite target, Calvin Ridley.

You win as a team, you lose as a team, but the success and blame usually goes toward the quarterback. So criticism was going to be heaped upon him after a game like that in a loss to Alabama’s hated rival.

That doesn’t mean fans have use the most hateful and racist word ever in criticizing Hurts.