It was already muggy when Alabama’s athletic director found his golf cart Wednesday morning. Greg Byrne’s well acquainted with the heat and it’s cranked up in the past week and a half.

The Regions Tradition celebrity pro-am was something of a distraction from the gambling scandal that became the latest controversy to hit the Alabama athletics department. And for the first time since the trouble surfaced last week, Byrne spoke with reporters near the Greystone Golf and Country Club driving range.

For nearly 10 minutes we took questions about the various storm clouds in Tuscaloosa. He confirmed no athletes are believed to be involved in the gambling scandal that claimed coach Brad Bohannon’s job last Thursday. This wasn’t on his radar until last Monday when the initial ESPN story set the chain reaction in motion.

It’s fair to say the ticking timebomb of legalized gambling is hitting college sports and that’s leading to extra education. Byrne said they called a special all-staff meeting Tuesday to discuss the matter. Before that, he sat down with football coach Nick Saban to discuss it.

“Coach and I talk regularly about different issues within Alabama Athletics, the challenges and the issues and challenges within college sports,” Byrne said.

Both Saban and Byrne addressed the full staff, the AD said.

Ever the communicator, Byrne abruptly pivoted his Wednesday morning media session to the message he wanted to sell. He didn’t spend those 10 minutes of his time as charity after more than a week of silence amid scandal.

Without even changing sentences, Byrne launched into a list of accomplishments from athlete graduation numbers, academic progress scores, community service hours, NFL draft picks and department-wide athletic success.

“And unfortunately, those things aren’t getting highlighted right now,” Byrne said though those stories aren’t completely ignored.

On the scandal, essentially, it was the few bad apples approach.

He relayed a story about a phone call he received from a friend who asked how many athletes compete at Alabama. How many staff members? Approximately 650 and 350, respectively, Byrne said.

“He asked how many of the staff members and student-athletes are creating some of this challenge. I said probably five or six. That’s one half of one percent of the entire department and you have 99.5% of your student-athletes and staff who are doing a really good job. And they are. We’re proud of them.

“And don’t lose sight of that as you’re talking about your department and university because we’re having a really solid year in many ways. There are things we have to get better at and we’re taking that seriously but I’m also really proud of a lot of the accomplishments we’ve had and I think it’s good to talk about these things.”

With that, Byrne was off to play 18 holes with Steve Stricker.

Silence broken. Message delivered.

But investigation ongoing and the full story, ultimately, still to be completed.

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