Alabama LB Dallas Turner Says The Crimson Tide's Standard Is 'Joyless Murder Ball'

Alabama linebacker Dallas Turner outlined what he expects from the Crimson Tide in 2023 coming off a two-loss regular season and did not mince words: "joyless murderball."

This is apparently a phrase Alabama fans on Twitter — which is to say Prattville High School graduates and University of South Alabama dropouts — have used for several years to describe Nick Saban's football teams and they seem quite excited by a player using it now that they need to trick their brains into thinking they're still the best program in the country. You can use whatever stupid catchphrase you want, there is no hashtag that will turn a team quarterbacked by Tyler Buchner or Jalen Milroe into a competitor to Georgia.

It's a cute clip. It may have even been intimidating several years ago when Alabama was on top of college football and really did play a game that could be described as joyless murderball. But then Saban's best student went to form his own program, lapped his former teacher and the rest of the sport and became the new standard. There's only one program in the country playing murderball and it ain't Alabama.

This is a good sound bite, though — at least until the Tide's first of three or four losses.