Alabama Football: Nick Saban is the real Sixty-Minute Man

Alabama football head coach Nick Saban has almost nothing in common with pro wrestler Ric Flair, except for being considered the greatest villains ever.

Richard Morgan Fliehr, known around the world as Ric Flair, is 68 years old. Nicholas Lou Saban Jr. is 66 years old. Flair has been the world champion of professional wrestling 16 times; Saban has won the college football national championship five times, four with Alabama. Both men have put in a ton of work throughout their careers and are considered masters in their respective fields. Arguably, they are the G.O.A.T.s of their professions.

They also share in the trait that people love to hate them, but for almost completely different reasons.

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While Flair is self-admittedly the stylin’, profilin’, limousine ridin’, jet flyin’, kiss-stealin’, wheelin’n’dealin’, son of a gun, Saban is the stoic and stern commander-in-chief. When Flair was spending much of his adult life acting like the original party animal and taking thousands of ladies up ‘Space Mountain’ as often as he could, Saban was very loyal to Miss Terry, his childhood sweetheart whom he married and stayed together since 1971.

Some people would call both men the dirtiest players in the game. Flair would often cheat, as professional wrestlers do, in his storyline matches in any manner possible. Saban, on the other hand, has been unfairly criticized for his aggressive way of recruiting. Just because a man works every day as hard as he can to make his team better, it does not mean that he is cheating or playing dirty.

Other than their ages, Saban and Flair have led very different lives; yet, one nickname they might as well both share: The Sixty-Minute Man.

Flair had a series of matches with famous professional wrestler Ricky Steamboat, which lasted 60 minutes. Flair would win over Steamboat while seeming never to take so much as a breath. The entire match would be fast-paced and intense.

College football games last 60 minutes. Four quarters lasting 15 minutes each. For each minute of the game, Saban is just as intense as Flair ever was.

Rick Bragg once wrote, “Never assume that Alabamans give a damn what others think.” That was Saban the moment he spoke for the first time to the media after being named head coach of the Crimson Tide many years ago: “I’m not interested in what should be, could be, was. I’m interested in what is, what we control.”

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Saban was not interested in talking about championships, like Flair did, but his speech sure sounded like Saban was cutting a Flair-esque promo on the college football universe. Every moment was to be spent by the coaches, the players, and the entire university program for a single purpose: to smash opponents and show the world what it means to be The Man.

The ‘Process’ of discipline, commitment, toughness, effort, and pride – five words that Saban preaches to his disciples – are the expectation, the standard that all Alabama football players are to aspire to reach, every single minute of every day.

That includes the 60 minutes in every football game or practice.

It takes endurance and determination to stick to that process and be a beacon for the rest of the coaching staff and players to follow suit. Whether winning or losing, Saban wants the players to get the job done right on every play. The scoreboard means nothing to him if his players are not being the men they should be every minute of every game.

To steal a line from Flair, to be the man you have to beat the man. Everyone has to pay homage to the man. Well, when one is Saban, opponents and fans alike pay that homage every time they come face-to-face with him. People hate Saban as much as people like him, but they all cannot help but respect him. Or else every second that ticks off of the 60-minute clock feels like a beating that him and his team deliver every time anyone disrespects them or comes unprepared.

Besides, like Flair, if Alabama is going to win, they should look good doing it.

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Ric Flair may have lived his gimmick in the real world, but Saban does not see his stylin’ and profilin’ as any kind of gimmick. People want to see Saban as a villain, a la Flair? So be it. Not like any Crimson Tide fans should complain. They should embrace it. Saban’s process shows the path of excellence on and off of the football field.

So, like what BamaHammer.com said about the players earlier in the week, every Alabama fan needs to give thoughts of Saban two claps and a Ric Flair: *Clap, Clap, WOOOO!!*

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