At a press conference this weekend, Amari Cooper said:

"Personally, I only speak for myself,'' said Cooper, who finished third in the Heisman Trophy race earlier this month. "No disrespect to the place. But I don't really like New Orleans. Too much going on. I don't like Bourbon Street. It doesn't smell good.''

People who over-analyze things, like me, could have a field day with this quote. On the one hand, I respect Cooper for having the cojones to say this. New Orleans has awesome food, great architecture, culture, and history, and other great things about it . . . but it's also an alcohol-soaked pit of squalor, disorder, and despair and the French Quarter doesn't smell good.

On the other hand, my mercenary side hopes that this quote comes back to bite Cooper and Bama. Maybe a star player from Bama will be out partying tonight and some native New Orleanian, pissed off by Cooper's quote, will slip this star player a rooffie and the poor kid wakes up five hours later in an alley, with his boxer shorts around his ankles, snuggling with a goat . . . all published on Instagram or whatever.

On the other hand #2, this quote from Cooper might signify that Bama won't do a lot of partying this week, which would be unfortunate. Of course, any time Bama loses a bowl game that wasn't for the national championship, we hear the excuses . . . "they didn't care about this game, blah, blah . . ." But, reading between the lines, it does sound like Bama's players did N'awlins in style last year and probably will be more businesslike this time around.