Alabama Coach Acts After Death Threats

Coach Bill Curry said today that he asked the FBI to investigate anonymous threats to some of his Alabama football players, and that special safety precautions will be taken when No. 4 Alabama plays at No. 10 Auburn.

“When our players are threatened by those gutless wonders who find some perverse pleasure in making anonymous phone calls and writing anonymous letters . . . I will use every mechanism at my disposal, including the FBI, and prosecute them to the full extent of the law,” he said.

Curry said he had contacted the FBI. At Birmingham, FBI spokesman Tom Moore would neither confirm nor deny that the agency was investigating.

Curry would not say which players had been threatened. The Tuscaloosa News quoted unnamed sources in the athletic department as saying specific players had received anonymous death threats.

The coach said the use of the federal mail and telephone lines to make threats could result in “criminal implications.”

“I will personally force the issue and use every ounce of my energy until we either silence or discover anyone who would do such a thing,” he said.

Alabama finishes its season at Auburn Dec. 2, when the annual game is played at the Auburn stadium for the first time.

“We will have a security plan when we get to our next game that will include the Alabama State Patrol as well as our own security people,” Curry said at a news conference. “We will be prepared to protect our players every single minute that they are traveling to or from the stadium as well as during the game.”

He said his players would be “essentially surrounded” by security personnel and that the stands would be checked.

“I regret that it is necessary to issue any such statement,” the coach said.