Nick Saban
Heavy snow, frigid temperatures this three-day weekend. Church was canceled. We stayed indoors and watched crime shows, animal rescue shows, soccer, and the NFL playoffs. We finished the absorbing serial killer tale Dahaad which we’d been viewing since November (we’re always nibbling on a half-dozen shows at once). Episodes would begin with a written disclaimer in Hindi which Samuel would cheekily “read” aloud – rattling off gibberish, of course. I have no idea what prompted our four-year-old to engage in such culturally insensitive tomfoolery; maybe the impulse is innate.
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Bill Belichick, Pete Carroll, and Nick Saban all ended long coaching tenures within a day of each other. Belichick and the Patriots “parted ways.” Carroll was demoted by the Seahawks. Saban retired from Alabama.
I attend less and less to football. I’ve long loathed the collegiate variety. But Saban is worth a moment’s reflection.
This tweet has been making the rounds.
But even if it’s to be admired – or envied – it’s not to be celebrated. Bama has become the megachurch that doesn’t bring in the unchurched so much as steal sheep. The really perverse thing is that this is what every name-brand collegiate sports program tries to do.
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“Every player who signed with the Tide and played four years under Saban won a national championship.”
I guess every four-year Bama student got to see the Tide win a championship, too.
Amazing.
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Saban cared about more than winning. This also has been making the rounds:
You’d be wrong. I saw that game. Of course the guy should have been scolded for taking that sack. Of course Denzel Washington should have been scolded, or worse, for flying an airplane drunk, even if he managed to land the plane and save the passengers. That’s not perfectionism; it’s basic education.
Some coaches are just middle managers. Others are educators. Saban appears to have been the latter. So maybe he did belong in a school, after all.
What kind of school? College? High school? An independent hothouse for the football-gifted? That’s a question for another time.
Acknowledgment:
I’ve linked to quotes from a variety of sources, but I didn’t gather them myself; they were compiled by Kendall Baker, in a Yahoo! digital “newsletter.” Thank you, sir.
See also:
“Bill Belichick Finally Succumbed to the NFL’s Mean – and Defying It So Long Is What Made Him a Legend.”
“No Country for Old Coaches.”
Meanwhile, a slightly younger coach is still in the NFL freezing his mustache off.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Bill Belichick, Pete Carroll, and Nick Saban all ended long coaching tenures within a day of each other. Belichick and the Patriots “parted ways.” Carroll was demoted by the Seahawks. Saban retired from Alabama.
I attend less and less to football. I’ve long loathed the collegiate variety. But Saban is worth a moment’s reflection.
This tweet has been making the rounds.
Since Nick Saban arrived in 2007, Alabama’s enrollment has increased from 25,000 students to 40,000 students.Amazing.
That’s a 60% jump compared to a 10% national average.
But the *type* of student matters much more.
Alabama went from the majority of its student body consisting of in-state students to the majority now being from out-of-state.
This is important because those students pay 3x more in annual tuition – $32,000 vs. $11,000 – and it means Alabama increased its annual revenue by hundreds of millions under Nick Saban.
Alabama paid him $130 million over 16 seasons, but you could argue he was worth more than $1 billion.
“Nick Saban is the best investment this university has ever made,” said Alabama Chancellor Robert Witt.
But even if it’s to be admired – or envied – it’s not to be celebrated. Bama has become the megachurch that doesn’t bring in the unchurched so much as steal sheep. The really perverse thing is that this is what every name-brand collegiate sports program tries to do.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
“Every player who signed with the Tide and played four years under Saban won a national championship.”
I guess every four-year Bama student got to see the Tide win a championship, too.
Amazing.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Saban cared about more than winning. This also has been making the rounds:
It was overtime of the 2017–18 national title game. Alabama trailed Georgia by three. That’s when Tua Tagovailoa, the true freshman thrown into the game to save the day, was sacked on first down for a 16-yard loss, only to then whip a perfect, 41-yard touchdown to win it all.That’s perfectionism, you might say, and whether this way of coaching is good or bad depends on whether perfectionism is good or bad.
Amid the celebration, Tagovailoa ran into his coach, the forever-demanding Nick Saban, expecting, well, some kind of reaction other than what he got. After all, this was one of the most legendary passes in Alabama history. Maybe a hug and a “Great play, Tua.”
“He pulled me to the side [and said], ‘What were you thinking taking a sack?’”
You’d be wrong. I saw that game. Of course the guy should have been scolded for taking that sack. Of course Denzel Washington should have been scolded, or worse, for flying an airplane drunk, even if he managed to land the plane and save the passengers. That’s not perfectionism; it’s basic education.
Some coaches are just middle managers. Others are educators. Saban appears to have been the latter. So maybe he did belong in a school, after all.
What kind of school? College? High school? An independent hothouse for the football-gifted? That’s a question for another time.
Acknowledgment:
I’ve linked to quotes from a variety of sources, but I didn’t gather them myself; they were compiled by Kendall Baker, in a Yahoo! digital “newsletter.” Thank you, sir.
See also:
“Bill Belichick Finally Succumbed to the NFL’s Mean – and Defying It So Long Is What Made Him a Legend.”
“No Country for Old Coaches.”
Meanwhile, a slightly younger coach is still in the NFL freezing his mustache off.
