This is an opinion column.

Tommy Tuberville is about loyalty.

He believes in the value of a contract.

When someone signs their name to a piece of paper, looks you in the eye and makes a promise, dadgumit, that means something.

Kids these days.

It’s a shame they can’t honor those agreements. The Senator representing Alabama said that’s the biggest complaint he hears from his old coaching buddies. These college football players sign NIL deals with collectives and then … poof.

They’re gone.

No warning, no chance to change their mind.

So there’s a coach, bound by his employment contract, left high and dry because a better opportunity came along for one of his players.

These coaches can’t take much more disloyalty so they’re turning to a champion of integrity. After years of failed attempts to pass a national NIL law to tame the wild west of the free market created in 2021, Tuberville has some ideas for the Republican-led Senate when it gavels in come January.

Among them: Penalize those greedy athletes.

RELATED: Penalize NIL deal-breaking athletes under new law, Sen. Tuberville says

The first-term Senator spoke about it with a few reporters before speaking to the Monday Morning Quarterback Club in Birmingham this week. He mentioned the idea for “some kind of penalty” for players breaking NIL contracts during a long answer speaking in general about possible legislation.

It begged a follow up. So I asked the Senator what kind of penalties he had in mind. There were some hems and haws, talk of exemptions, but he was clear in his intentions.

“My thoughts are, you know, you sign a contract on NIL, I mean you can’t just up and break it,” Tuberville said. “I mean you gotta … you wanna sign a year, two-year, three-year, you got a three-year contract. If you break it, there’s gotta be some kind of penalty.”

Because contracts have always been sacred to Tuberville.

Like in 1998, when as the head coach at the University of Mississippi, rumors about other coaching jobs were swirling. On the Wednesday before playing the Egg Bowl on Thanksgiving, Tuberville told his weekly radio show audience he was committed to that program.

“They’ll have to carry me out of here in a pine box,” Tuberville said two days before a better contract at Auburn lured him to take the head coaching job there.

Yikes, bad example.

A former Tiger receiver recalled Tuberville’s commitment to program loyalty after arriving. Tyler Siskey, who went on to coach at multiple colleges around the southeast, spoke about the meeting he had with Tuberville this summer on a podcast he cohosts.

The coach told him if he planned on running out of that tunnel next year, he’d be doing that with the opposing team. A few weeks later, his roommate and a starting receiver learned through a radio news report his scholarship was being revoked after leaving practice, Siskey said.

Right, right, well that was more than 20 years ago.

Surely a misunderstanding or maybe Tuberville learned some lessons from these experiences.

After Tuberville *air quotes* resigned from Auburn in 2008 with a $5.08 million buy-out, he landed at Texas Tech. Quite a deal to exit a contract early but a fresh start nonetheless in west Texas. And Year 1 went well enough to get a five-season contract after finishing 8-5.

Two years later … oh boy.

A 5-7 season was followed by a 7-5 record and a need to regroup.

At Cincinnati.

The story Texas Tech recruits told placed Tuberville at a recruiting dinner on a Friday night when the topic of his long-term plans for the future was addressed.

Offensive line recruit De’Vonte Danzey told Wreckem247.com that Tuberville didn’t give much of an answer before excusing himself from the table. He never returned and the following morning, Tuberville was announced as the new head coach at Cincinnati and Denzey eventually signed at Auburn where he played from 2013-15. He’s now the offensive line coach at South Florida.

Years later, Tuberville told AL.com that recruiting dinner was “totally false,” but his old boss at Texas Tech explained some of the dynamic in play at the time.

“As recently as yesterday (Tuberville) looked me in the eye and gave me his commitment and dedication to Texas Tech football and leading this football program forward,” AD Kirby Hocutt told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal the day Cincinnati announced it hired Tuberville.

A five-year contract at Cincinnati was more attractive.

Hmmmmm…

“My thoughts are, you know, you sign a contract on NIL, I mean you can’t just up and break it.”

Hmmmmm…

“… You got a three-year contract. If you break it, there’s gotta be some kind of penalty.”

Yeah …

Well, turns out Tuberville might not be the best voice of this integrity movement.

The Pin Box Act wouldn’t carry the weight of this former coach who transitioned seamlessly into the political arena.

That said, there’s room for legislation to streamline this unregulated world of NIL its relationship with recruiting and transfers.

Leading with the idea of protecting coaches and administrators from greedy athletes might not be the way to sell it.

And tapping Tuberville as the champion of contract integrity could be even dumber.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.