Alabama Football: Stop the Nick Saban almost went to Texas nonsense
By Ronald Evans
Alabama football fans are well aware of old claims Nick Saban almost left Tuscaloosa for Austin, TX. The fact the claims are bogus has not extinguished them.
Nothing ever completely dies in the misinformation explosion of today’s media. The old, bogus claim Nick Saban almost relocated from Tuscaloosa to Austin keeps oozing out and resurfacing. It happened again over the last few days. Twitter has been full of it. Notice, I did not say Twitter is full of it.
Twitter and other social media platforms are not the problem. The problem lies in the content generators themselves, whether they be major media figures or just misguided fans. In terms of the ‘pros’ in today’s media world, eyeballs reign. A click, quickly leading to another click away from b.s. content counts just as much as a someone who values the content.
Splash anything, no matter how devoid of substance, onto the public consciousness and the tote boards ring with a payoff. Admittedly, many of the tote boards are measuring return in pennies – but buzz-creating, homerun content can gin up more than pennies, sometimes a lot more.
Anything casting Alabama football or Nick Saban in an unfavorable light has an above-average chance of garnering a high number of eyeballs. The sizzle generated requires no relationship to reality.
What did and did not happen with Nick Saban
A quick disclaimer: no inside sources will be used or claimed in this post. Having read multiple reports over the years, my conclusion is based on personal judgment. If that judgment ever turns out to be flawed, I doubt it will be as flawed as all the claims Nick Saban “almost left Alabama for Texas.”
It is clear Texas tried on multiple occasions to hire Nick Saban. Saban’s contract negotiating guru, Jimmy Sexton always listened. That is Sexton’s job and he does it better than anyone else in the business. The Longhorns, having an abundance of massively, deep-pocketed donors, apparently believe they can buy anything – or anyone.
Big money was thrown on the table. Sexton conveyed to the University of Alabama some details of the offer and suggested Saban was willing to listen. Make no mistake, Alabama football has some deep-pocket donors too. Alabama was never going to get out-bid for Nick Saban. Not after the Dynasty began with the 2009 National Championship.
The Longhorns probably had the deepest pockets. What they did not have was a way to buy the perspective of Terry Saban. Forget the claims Terry Saban went house-hunting in Austin. Terry Saban had settled in Tuscaloosa and was not interested in another move. And that, my Crimson Tide friends, was the end of that.
Next. The SEC Hype we are buying and not. dark
What is really needed to combat such nonsense is another run at a National Championship. Which is something the Longhorns can only discuss in the past tense.