Bama DB laments outburst at end of Vandy game
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Chris Low, ESPN Senior Writer
Malachi Moore, an Alabama team captain, apologized Monday for his outburst at the end of Saturday’s 40-35 loss to Vanderbilt, and Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said Moore would not be suspended for his actions.
Moore released a statement on X and said he was “completely out of line.”
He added in his statement: “I let the emotions of the game get the best of me and put myself before the team. As a two-time captain and fifth-year player, I understand the standard we are expected to live up to at Alabama, and I failed to do so by acting in a selfish and unacceptable manner. … I will do better to uphold the Alabama standard moving forward.”
Moore, a multiyear starter at safety, shoved Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia‘s head toward the ground at the end of a play. Moore also threw his mouthpiece and was hit with a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for kicking the football. The Alabama staff tried to substitute for Moore at the end of the game, but he appeared to refuse to come off the field.
DeBoer said Moore has “gone above and beyond in taking ownership” for his on-field tirade that went viral on social media and drew sharp rebuke from many around the college football world, including former Alabama running back Damien Harris, who was part of two national championship teams at Alabama.
“I can tell you what would have happened in the days that I was there,” Harris said on a podcast with The Athletic. “We would have tried to rip the ‘C’ off his jersey. We would have lit him up, from every coach, every player. … Everybody would have been on this dude’s head, like we don’t do that.”
DeBoer defended Moore for what he has meant to the program, while adding that it doesn’t make his actions right.
“He has had my back and our back since day one,” DeBoer said. “There comes a point too where sometimes as things play out, you’ve got to have your guy’s back as well and understand we all make mistakes and we all have just got to own up to it.”
DeBoer added: “I think the thing I want to make sure Bama fans know is that this guy has been rock-solid and been a critical, critical piece, along with others — there were others as well — of keeping this thing together since January, OK? When a lot of guys chose to leave, this guy stood firm. This guy loves Alabama football.”
Moore was one of the Alabama players most vocal in January about players buying into DeBoer and the new staff and not bolting for other opportunities just because Nick Saban retired.
“We did our own homework as players. The dude has won everywhere,” Moore told ESPN in January when DeBoer was hired. “His standard is the same as ours, to be hoisting that trophy up at the end of the year. He was one win away last year, and that puts a chip on his shoulder. We definitely have one on ours with the way the season ended.
“We’re working toward the same goal, and this time with his vision.”
Knight’s Choice has won the 2024 Melbourne Cup, defeating Warp Speed and Okita Soushi in a thrilling finish at Flemington on Tuesday afternoon.
The massive outsider saluted for Irish-born jockey Robbie Dolan, who claimed victory in what was his first ever ride in the “race that stops a nation”.
In what was a gripping 164th staging of Australia’s most-watched thoroughbred race, Knight’s Choice proved too strong in a sprint to the finish, pulling over the top of Okita Soushi and holding off Warp Speed by the barest of margins.
Trained by John Symons and Sheila Laxon on the Sunshine Coast, Knight’s Choice was well down the betting across all markets. It was Laxon’s second Melbourne Cup triumph after she trained Ethereal to victory 23 years ago.
“This is the pinnacle of all pinnacles, this is the Melbourne Cup,” Symons said.
Zardozi rounded out the first four.
As the field approached the final few hundred metres it appeared as though Jamie Kah, aboard Okita Soushi, would become just the second woman to ride the winner in the Melbourne Cup. But Okita Soushi was swallowed up as the winning post neared, with Knight’s Choice beating Warp Speed to the line after a peach of a ride from Dolan.
“We’ll be singing tonight after a few beers,” Dolan, who was a contestant on the 2022 edition of “The Voice”, told Channel 9.
“It is amazing and a lot of people doubted this little horse. Doubt me now.”
Laxon was more than happy with the ride, with Dolan threading his way through the field from near last on the bend.
“He started the race, and he knew how to ride him. We didn’t give him instructions, he knew what to do,” she said.
“I love it being down for the Australians. The Australian horse has done it, and Robbie is Australian now as well, so I’m thrilled to win the Cup, and it is the people’s Cup, and that’s what it is all about.”
Knight’s Choice is just the sixth Australian-bred horse to win since 1993, and the first since Vow and Declare back in 2019.
The five-year-old gelding carried only 51kg to victory and was making its first start over the 3200m trip. It had most recently come off a fifth-placed finish in the Bendigo Cup, but had showed sparing little form this preparation otherwise.
“I watched every Melbourne Cup for the last 40 years. I thought my best chance was to get him to stay the trip and, hopefully, he can run home and do the quick sectionals he can on a good track and he proved everybody wrong,” Dolan said.
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