Alabama Football: Not buying the Nick Saban to ESPN narrative

The college football story of the week is about Nick Saban. As reported by al.com,

"Nick Saban considered leaving Alabama after the most stunning defeat of his Crimson Tide career"

That stunning defeat was the 2013 Iron Bowl. The source for the story is the Senior Sports Editor for AL.com, John Talty. In Talty’s book about Saban, scheduled to be released in August, he wrote,

"Saban authorized Nick Khan — the agent for sports television personalities such as Kirk Herbstreit and Skip Bayless — to meet with ESPN to discuss the possibility of moving to television. Talty writes that Saban met with Khan prior to the season and with ESPN executives afterward, discussing the possibility of joining the cast of College GameDay."

Also in the book, per AL.com, is a comment from then ESPN executive, John Wildhack, who said,

"… he was intrigued and he was interested. If he wasn’t interested, he never would have done it in the first place. But I also didn’t think he was ready to step aside as being a coach."

Moving past the sizzle and the convenient reference to the 2013 Iron Bowl, all the above states is Nick Saban was willing to talk about a potential future in television. It does not state that Nick Saban initiated any conversations. It also does not state he had any timeframe in mind for when he might consider leaving football for television.

More importantly, while the book may have Saban quotes on this issue, none have been reported so far.

What we do have, being prominently spun, can be seen below.

The clear implication is the outcome of the 2013 Iron Bowl caused Nick Saban to seriously consider ending his football career.

Add my name to the group of Alabama football fans not buying that claim. No offense is aimed at John Talty who is doing what every author does in trying to gin up interest in a book. Not only is that a necessity for authors, it is a nearly absolute requirement.

Of course, Nick Saban talked

What I believe happened (notice I am not claiming to know the facts) is an agent (Nick Khan) encouraged Saban to let him set up a meeting with ESPN. In all kinds of professions, elite talent and expertise agrees to talk to many suitors. Such conversations are more speculative than substantive.

Saban, in my opinion, listened to ESPN as he listened to Texas one or more times. Call it doing due diligence for a future course of action. From ESPN, he learned more about a potential career after coaching football and filed that knowledge away.

My belief-driven conclusion is Nick Saban never seriously considered ending his coaching career after the 2013 season. Everything he has said in subsequent years indicates he will coach football as long as he possibly can. How long that will be is anybody’s guess – guesses I have no interest in.

Good luck to John Talty with his book. It is likely to be a great read.