Veteran Journalist, Former Tide Lineman Remembered In Tuscaloosa

TUSCALOOSA, AL — A teammate of former University of Alabama offensive lineman and veteran newsman Christopher Paul Sign remembered his longtime friend as always being focused on "the scoop," while being the type of player that coaches want to see on their rosters and a man who loved his family.

On Saturday, ABC 33/40 announced Sign's death at the age of 45. He is survived by his wife, Laura, and three sons: Hampton, Anders and Charlie, along with a legacy in Alabama journalism that is likely to live on in the minds of his colleagues for years to come.

"Chris wasn’t the biggest of us, he always said he was 6’2", but we always said that he was 6'1 and a half," said Tuscaloosa attorney Josh Swords, another former Tide offensive lineman and roommate of Sign's. "But he had a great football mind and had a great understanding of relationships. He worked hard and did any of the things a coach would want to see in a player and build trust ... he was going to get it done."

ABC 33/40 Vice President & General Manager Eric Land released a statement Saturday, as the station also referred to Sign as a "tremendous leader" in the newsroom.

"Our deepest sympathy is shared with Christopher's loving family and close friends," he said. "We have lost a revered colleague who's indelible imprint will serve forever as a hallmark of decency, honesty and journalist integrity. We can only hope to carry on his legacy. May his memory be for blessing."

AL.com's Carol Robinson reported that at 8:13 a.m. Saturday, the Hoover 911 center received a call of a person down at a residence on Scout Trace, with Hoover police and fire personnel arriving to find Sign dead at the scene.

While Sign's impact in his professional career brought him widespread acclaim — including authoring a book about a meeting between former President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch — Swords said his attention to detail and willingness to put in the work were readily apparent during their playing days.

Bryant Hall, 'Walker, Texas Ranger' & Bill Clinton

Sign was a product of Texas, playing high school football for Eddy Peach at Lamar High School in Arlington, where he was an All-State selection. He also came from a family with a rich football background.

Sign's father played football in the NFL, while two of his brothers — Bobby and Matt — also played Division I football at Baylor and Rice, respectively, before going on to play in the NFL.

Both Swords and Sign came on board with the Crimson Tide football program and coach Gene Stallings in 1994. He would choose the Crimson Tide over Miami, LSU, Florida State and Texas Tech, originally coming on as either a left guard or center. Sign would redshirt his freshman year, going on to letter in 1997 for coach Mike DuBose.

"I always wanted to go to Alabama," Sign said in an article published in the Huntsville Times in November 1993.

In a copy of his University of Alabama football questionnaire after coming to campus, Sign was particularly proud of his football pedigree, mentioning the other talented men in his family, while also mentioning his hobbies as "collectibles."

When asked about his goals on the sports information questionnaire at UA, the incoming freshman said he intended "to start and become a captain." While he would never achieve this dream, he reportedly never lost sight of life after football.

Swords told Patch that even when they were roommates at Bryant Hall, he noticed a keen interest from Sign in forming bonds with those around the football program, not just the athletes, in an effort to better understand everyone's role in the grander scheme — including his own.

"He developed relationships with every facet of what we dealt with on a day-to-day basis, not just knowing their names, but sitting down and talking to them and figuring our their role in life," Swords said. "It's something that nobody, in all of my experience and even being around the teams now, you’ll never find someone who paid as much attention to details and relationships and how they fit in to the University of Alabama football program.

"He always loved using the word 'scoop,' but it didn’t have to be a scoop in worldly things or statewide topics," he added. "It was the scoop with what was going on in the lunchroom or in the dorm. He even kept a journal just about the day-to-day life in Bryant Hall."

Sign also had a love for entertainment, Swords said, and one newspaper story from 1997 underscored that passion, as the Birmingham Post-Herald's Darin Powell and Susan Robinson told the story of Sign appearing on a episode of the hit television series" Walker, Texas Ranger."

His father, former NFL player Robert Sign, reportedly also appeared on the show numerous times the previous season before his son was cast as an extra.

During the appearance, which was an unpaid performance due to Sign still playing left guard for the Crimson Tide, he played the role of a robber who fought Chuck Norris on the show. He also expressed at the time that he was interested in a career in Hollywood.

"That's the hardest thing to do — getting on the show," Sign told the newspaper following his television appearance. "I kind of slipped in the back door and had a great time doing it."

A graduate of UA's journalism school, Sign was also active with the university and was invited numerous times to come back and speak, while serving as a role model for the journalists coming behind him.

"Even as a graduate, he continued to inspire us, make us laugh, and mentor young journalists. He will be missed," the Department of Journalism and Creative Media said on Saturday.

As the friends grew up and entered their careers, Swords pointed out that Sign never lost his eye for detail or drive to not just be the first to get their hands on a story, but to also get it right.

"Any time he was able to get that scoop, he would get so fired up," he said with a laugh, before striking a more serious tone. "He wanted to take pride in being the one to break that to world. In his mind, it was the front stage for him to be able to seek out find things, bring it to the forefront, and he was really, really good at it."

ABC 33/40 said Sign's family was the most important thing in his life, which led him to return to the Birmingham-based television station four years ago. He previously worked as a reporter for the station in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

"We are still in shock over this news," ABC 33/40 Chief Meteologist James Spann said Saturday. "Chris was a very good friend, and an incredible journalist. The grief today has been overwhelming."

Sign would go on to leave for a job in Phoenix, where he would work for 13 years as a reporter and anchor, winning four Emmy awards. The most high-profile moment of his career would come during this time, when Sign broke the story of the June 2016 secret tarmac meeting between former President Bill Clinton and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch in the 2019 book "Secret on the Tarmac: Inside the Clandestine Tarmac Meeting of Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch? the Story of How Journalism, a Secret Informant, and Alabama Football Impacted a Presidential Election."

"He did interviews with coach Nick Saban, President Trump, and a lot of times you hear these football players don’t have a lot of smarts to them," Swords said. "But Chris was definitely one of the smart ones and I think he showed it. He really just took pride in a job well done and at 45 years old, there's no telling what else he could have accomplished."

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