Brad Bohannon found a way.

In a business where college coaches who do termination-worthy wrongs get reprieve after reprieve, seemingly a bottomless supply of second chances as long as they deliver wins and championships, destroying one's coaching career to the point of no repair is pretty hard to do.

The former Alabama baseball coach, however, has done it. He's torched a half-million-dollar-a-year gig beyond recognition.

The gambling scandal that rocked the Crimson Tide's 33-16 team last week will blackball Bohannon's future in the sport more thoroughly than any NCAA sanction ever could. Alabama began proceedings Thursday to fire Bohannon with official language that matches the fired-for-cause section of his contract. Bohannon has been linked to bets against his own team by gambling regulators. Credible reporting places him on a phone call with the bettor as the wagers were being placed.

POSTSEASON: Will Alabama baseball be eligible for NCAA Tournament? What AD Greg Byrne said

BYRNED: What AD Greg Byrne said about Alabama baseball gambling investigation

There is still no hard evidence of linkage between the bets and the decision to scratch Alabama's best starting pitcher, Luke Holman, shortly before the game in question, an 8-6 loss to LSU on April 28. But short of Holman himself confirming the severity of the back tightness that reportedly caused the scratch − players have not been made available to comment on the scandal − we're left to call this how it smells.

And it stinks.

It stank when the news broke while I was on a brief vacation last week, hence the lateness of this writing, and it stinks no less today.

Some relevant facts and details of this embarrassment are still unknown, but some of the blanks not yet filled in wouldn't make much of a case for Bohannon anyway. Whether he was set to profit from the winning bets doesn't matter. Ultimately, whether Holman's back was really barking too loudly for him to pitch isn't a question that would absolve Bohannon, either. There are also unknowns that could expose more rot. Did Bohannon happen to get caught the very first time he associated himself with a bet against Alabama? Common sense says that's unlikely. The scandal could go back years for all anyone knows, and absent a conclusive investigation to the contrary, Bohannon could take the depth of that rot to his grave.

What is known suggests Bohannon betrayed his own players − the guys he recruited and sold on his leadership − in the deepest, most egregious way imaginable. They're the ones who've been wronged in all this more than anyone. More than fans, more than the UA administration, more than gamblers who might've unwittingly lost money on a tainted contest. Director of Athletics Greg Byrne hasn't disclosed what he said to them in the wake of this disaster, but whatever his words were, they weren't enough. Nobody's would be. The bond between a coach and an athlete is a special and unique one, and while that bond often gets broken for any number of reasons, it never gets broken in such a disgusting way as this.

No athletics director in his right mind, from Division-I to NAIA, will touch Bohannon going forward. Even a high school AD would have some explaining to do. We're talking scorched-earth here, the kind of career detonation that sends people into entirely different, and far more low-profile, lines of work. Pro baseball? Gambling isn't tolerated there.

Bob Petrino has second chances on tap.

Urban Meyer got his.

Hugh Freeze. Will Wade. George O'Leary.

The turbulence all these coaches created for themselves was different for each, and of varying severity. They're not to be compared, but they all have this in common: another shot on another campus. None of their transgressions tied them to an interest in their own teams losing games, however. A key difference between them at Bohannon? For one thing, they actually won enough to carry the clout that second chances in coaching usually demand.

Bohannon didn't.

And perhaps he didn't always want to.

Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23 and the Talkin' Tide podcast. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Fired UA baseball coach Brad Bohannon's betrayal blows all 2nd chances