Rick Karle discusses Alabama sports at chamber luncheon

The Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce welcomed Fox 6 sports director Rick Karle to its luncheon on June 18.

“Obviously we in Hoover know a little bit about high school football, and [Karle] has done his high school football show for 26 years, that we watch every Friday night,” said former state senator Paul DeMarco. “… It says a lot about Rick, in addition to shuffling his family and being sports director in Birmingham, Alabama with all the sports we have here, all the charitable events he does.”

Karle was a last-minute substitute speaker for the luncheon, after formerly-scheduled speaker Spencer Collier, head of Alabama state troopers, was unavailable.

“Bill and I started talking, like ‘We have to have somebody to be our speaker,’ and we started talking about how football season’s around the corner, so the first person we thought of was our speaker, Rick Karle,” DeMarco said.

Karle discussed Alabama sports and addressed audience questions, although he admitted it’s hard to answer some things this early in the season.

“Preseason polls, you look at most of these polls, and you’re going to get all of these so-called experts like me,” he said. “Look, you probably know as much as we do at this point.”

During his time at the podium, Karle talked focused on football at the collegiate and high school levels.

The upcoming season looks good for Auburn football, which is ranked highly in preseason polls. He said a good roster and schedule, including playing the Iron Bowl at home, bodes well for the team.

Although Alabama is ranked lower than Auburn, Karle said that shouldn’t concern fans. A roster that is thin at running back and a schedule that means facing Auburn and Georgia away.

“If I were an Alabama fan, I wouldn’t worry too much about the success of your team either, except the schedule is tough,” Karle said. “They have to go to Mississippi State, they have to go to Georgia, they’ve got Wisconsin, and they’ve got to go to Auburn. That might step up and bite them, who knows.”

UAB sports, Karle said, posed a more interesting topic. The back-and-forth status of the team and rallying of community support showed a good possibility for the team, Karle said, but fans still have their work cut out for them.

Karle closed his speech discussing Fox 6 Sideline, a program covering high school sports that has been around for 26 years. The show’s success stems from a formula that has been perfected as well as good community, he said.

“Hoover, thank you, you’ve helped that show tremendously,” Karle said. “Between Rush Propst and Josh Niblett, it’s been a lot of fun. And with Propst, not only football, just with drama. You can't go wrong with Hoover and what they've done for the program over the years.”