Alabama Football Bans Ha Ha Clinton-Dix for Violating Team Rules

University of Alabama safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix was suspended indefinitely for an unspecified violation of team rules, leaving the defending national champions without one of college football’s top defensive backs.

Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban declined to say at a news conference what rules were involved in Clinton-Dix’s case.

“I’m going to be consistent,” Saban said yesterday. “When guys get suspended, I never ever say what it’s for. All right? I’m not going there. So don’t ask me. It’s the way it always happens. Every guy, if they do right, they wouldn’t be getting suspended. I don’t know for how long this will be, so don’t ask me that either.”

The nation’s top safety prospect out of high school, according to Rivals.com, Clinton-Dix is second on the team with 24 tackles, trailing linebacker C.J. Mosley’s 35. The 6-foot-1, 208-pound junior is projected to be the first defensive back chosen in next year’s National Football League draft, according to ESPN analyst Todd McShay.

The undefeated Crimson Tide (4-0), the No. 1-ranked team in the Associated Press Top 25, host Georgia State (0-4) on Oct. 5 and travel to play Kentucky (1-3) on Oct. 12. Alabama has won three of the past four Bowl Championship Series national titles.

Clinton-Dix’s backup, senior Nick Perry, is injured. Sophomores Landon Collins and Geno Smith will play this week in his absence, Saban said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Eben Novy-Williams in New York at enovywilliam@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net

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University of Alabama Safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix

Wesley Hitt/Getty Images

University of Alabama Safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix.

University of Alabama Safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. Photographer: Wesley Hitt/Getty Images