Alabama Football: Does Nick Saban push players harder than any other coach?

Every year since Alabama football began to dominate the NFL Draft, Nick Saban is condemned for pushing players too hard, driving them to play hurt and shortening their football careers.

Alabama football fans may be unfamiliar with Sally Jenkins and her sportswriter legend father, Dan Jenkins. Sally is a fine reporter and writer. Her book Carlisle vs. Army: Jim Thorpe, Dwight Eisenhower, Pop Warner, and the Forgotten Story of Football’s Greatest Battle is a treasure for those who love college football history.

In 1991, Sally’s dad published the irreverent sports novel, You Gotta Play Hurt. The title was better than the novel but it fueled a mantra about overcoming challenge and persevering through hardship.

Does Nick Saban push players too hard? Do Alabama football players play hurt and damage their bodies? We suppose those are fair questions, even coming out of the mouth of attention seeking entertainers like Colin Cowherd.

Such accusations sizzle in a tweet but search for a substantive response requires more. Justin Nails wrote in Gridiron Now:

"“Nick Saban pushes his players harder than any other coach at any other program in college football. No, there is no evidence presently to suggest that those players are beat up when they hit the NFL. Until concrete data exists to verify that theory, consider it debunked.”"

Nails looked at the 2013 draft year to see how many Alabama football players were injured in their short NFL careers. In that small sample, the data showed 45 percent of Tide players experienced a significant NFL injury.

Nails did the same analysis for LSU, a program that feeds a similar number of players to the NFL. Unlike Alabama, LSU has not been accused of overworking its players and harming their football careers. The same 2013 analysis showed 44 percent of LSU players sustained a significant injury in the NFL.

Nails concluded Alabama and Nick Saban have been falsely accused.

The complaints against Nick Saban and Alabama football are not new. The accusations were fueled last November by comments from former Tide player, Anthony Steen, reported by Joe Schad in the Palm Beach Post.

"Steen, who is known as a tough competitor, seems regretful that a required shoulder surgery did not occur until after the conclusion of his final Alabama regular season. Steen suggested he should not have been playing. “Football, a lot of it is mentally, If you can work through pain, you can go. But at ‘Bama, that was the problem. A lot of things you went through and you shouldn’t have. You should have stayed off of it. That’s why a lot of guys from ‘Bama are hurt.”"

A couple of days later, Steen was concerned his comments would unfairly cast a negative perception about Alabama football and added:

"“What I said was I think that a lot of it has to do with mental toughness because at bama we played through everything because we were mentally tough! Those of you that know me know i wouldn’t ever talk down about ALABAMA and I was really trying to complement how I think bama players are mentally tough…”"

The Alabama football “pushes players too hard”  argument points to former players who did not last in the NFL. Two of those players are Barrett Jones and Josh Chapman. Jones played the 2013 national championship game with torn ligaments in his foot. Chapman injured a knee mid-year of the 2011 season. Chapman chose to delay his ACL repair until the season concluded.

There have been multiple reports that NFL scouts and some teams are wary about “worn-down” Alabama players. A former NFL General Manager, Mark Dominik doesn’t buy the “wear and tear” perception, reported SEC Country.

"“I don’t believe in that at all, these kids are built. I’ve drafted kids from Alabama who have held up just fine. So I don’t worry about that. I don’t mind that a guy has been coached hard, too … They’ve just got good players, and they’re big boys at Alabama. So they can take a beating, because they’ve been giving them out for a long time.”"