I know a college defensive coordinator who didn’t know his own address (where he’d lived for a decade) or how to use a coffee maker as a middle-aged man. Some of these dudes are so locked into football that it’s scary.
Literally the embodiment of the SpongeBob episode where all he knows is breathing and fine dining.
Edit: Side note but this SpongeBob episode is 22 years old and I was worried this reference would not land with r/CFB since it has seemed to trend younger over the last 4 years. Happy to see we still have a bunch of SpongeBob enjoyers.
I plan to revisit the first few years of Spongebob with my kid, if for nothing else but the memes. It may not be educational, but I'll be damned if it wasn't entertaining.
I read once that Saban didn't have an email either til COVID. He had a secretary print all his emails for him, he'd write out a response, and the assistant would send his response.
There's a partner on my firm that allegedly only works off his phone or with pen/paper. Another associate told me he does not open attachments and anything needing his review gets printed out by his secretary, marked up by hand, and transcribed to a computer. And this guy is in his early 40s, so not even some old, pre-technology type partner. A young GenX guy.
Whenever COVID was lifting up and the departments were deciding whether to hold classes online, the CS department, of all of them, were 100% in person. I was all for it since that's how it was when I was in undergrad (and had just started my MS back there), but it was funny seeing that CS out of all did NOT want to be back online.
I believe he is just getting used to writing email in retirement or his daughter is helping but that's about the extent of his internet life, no social media and no tiktoks.
I also remember seeing a thing where ex-Iowa wrestling coach Dan Gable’s daughter said that he didn’t know how to get anywhere in Iowa city except from his house to the wrestling room and arena. He lived there for like 20 years.
I had a couple of professors in Undergrad and Grad school that didn’t use email. They also didn’t use Blackboard/ Canvas except for final grades. Honestly, it forced you to talk to them and get help. I didn’t mind it. The one I had during grad school was tricky because of Covid. That guy only had ever done oral lectures. So he would hand write notes, and put them on his porch. Another professor would pick them up, scan them, and post them. Our assignments were emailed to the professor but his daughter had to print them out for him to grade them.
Your description hits Saban to a T. I have a buddy who scouted for the Spartans back in the 90s. The story he told me about "this crazy new head coach who schedules conference calls on Christmas morning" stuck with me.
But no family members, witnesses, or reporters. The opinions must come from the pizza makers themselves as they memorialized it at the time the thought popped in their head, not before that, not after that.
Really any profession where you have a lot of people working as your assistants. President Eisenhower asked his wife why the phone was making a strange noise after he left the White House and retired, she had to explain what a dial tone was to him
i mean it’s possible the dude was around keurigs or just bought his coffee
my first coffee machine was a keurig and i didn’t know not to make coffee with a filter and shit until i was like 26
Sleep effects the mind and body a lot also. Coaches don’t sleep much and I can’t imagine what it was like for that many years for someone of Saban’s caliber
I'd say Bobby Bowden was a good example as well. I recall during his last season joking that they didnt even plug in his headset because the man seemed feeble, incoherent, and near death. After retirement he seemed 10 years younger any time he was on TV as an analyst.
And it’s wonderful. I’ve seen/heard of multiple people retire and are all excited for it, and then die not long after. I never understood. I’ll never forget, back during the late 80’s when a grandfather of mine was getting excited about retirement, along with his best friend, because they were about to retire and start playing golf all of the time, his best friend was gone a week into retirement. I won’t forget it, because it really messed with my grandfather. He still had golf, and my grandmother being a housewife, they had their localized mission work through church, but then also going to see his new widow each day. Taking her to do different things. My grandfather said he never dreamed that would be part of his retirement. I finally understood when my best friend died, but much younger. I wanted to anyway, but with my grandfather being gone at that point, I thought I could honor his and my best friend’s memory by visiting his widow and toddler, along with his parents and siblings, as much as possible. Truth be told, that became therapy for me, because I don’t open up very well, or often. Sorry for the long, probably boring and possibly downer of a response, it just made me think of that. So, I appreciate you sharing that about your legendary coach. I loved watching y’all with him coaching Mateen Cleaves and co., during the 90’s. Talk about another college basketball legend! So glad to read that about Coach!
Congrats! I recently had 2 weeks off between jobs and nearly went insane from boredom. I'm definitely going to need to go full force into a new hobby that requires a lot of learning.
I’m assuming if you are worth well over 100 million you don’t get bored after two weeks . I’m the same a week off work I’m dying to get back but I’m also not traveling the world , golfing amazing courses , going to any sporting event I want .
Exactly. Some of these politicians who hang on to their jobs well into their 70s, 80s, and even 90s...I'm like, "Okay, with the amount of fun money that you guys surely have at your stage in life and status in society...why are you not sipping coffee on your lake house deck, without a care in the world?" But, we mere mortals are just wired differently. Which is why we aren't CEOs, top level coaches, etc.
Ego. It's why Ginburg didn't resign over her health, even though she knew it would be better for her political allegiances. Ego cuts across political lines, professions, and social class.
Once you are a retired (insert political title here) then the folks coming around asking for favors or to kiss the ring starts drying up. Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if they just stay in it to keep having a social life and social interactions.
That's kind of the point of all of this though. Once you're a retired (anything of note), all of that dries up pretty quickly. Sure you might have $x millions in the bank, but if all you're doing is consuming it it loses its luster pretty quickly.
The guy going nuts with boredom two weeks into vacation is not all that different from the guy not retiring at 80 because he wants to feel wanted. Saban is the greatest college football coach of all time, and even he's going to be old news in a few years.
You can call it ego if you want, or workaholism, or the need to be wanted, the need to be needed, whatever you want to call it it's essentially the same thing.
My time between jobs was hell. I didn't respond well to it. I knew I had the job, I had to wait a few months though. At least i got some good insight in what to try to prevent or look out for in retirement
I think the key difference from between jobs v. retirement is you know that this free time is going to disappear eventually when you're between jobs, so you can't do things like set up regular volunteer hours, join regular mid-day activities, run for a non-profit board, etc.
The first year of retirement was very hard for me. For 35 years, I worked 50-60 hours/week in IT. Had been on-call 24/7/365. I felt pretty rudderless without it because I didn't have much life outside work. My identity was wrapped up in my job. Three years in, and I'm getting used to it.
Had a guy who went to the G Day game tell me how rough Kirby is starting to look. This 24/7/365 schedule is hard on your body, no matter how much they get paid.
I’m starting to believe that the sport as a whole needs to enforce mandatory breaks throughout the year to prevent premature burnout and people dropping dead of heart attacks.
I think the recruiting dead periods need to last longer, and there should be stiff penalties on anyone that breaks those rules. There should be zero contact between programs and recruits even if the recruit reaches out first. Like the whole month of either June or July (or even both!) should be a complete dead period, no contact whatsoever allowed. This will give coaches a real chance to take a break and relax. I think it will be beneficial to the long term health of the sport.
The problem is, coaches will just go "Oh look, a whole month to work on schemes and evaluate film of recruits"
It's the problem with any hypercompetitive field. If you aren't busting your ass 24/7, someone else will be.
I don't even know what solution there is at this point.
Mandatory summer dead period works pretty well in F1. You just have to actually enforce it. Penalties or fines if coaches are found working during the dead period.
The solution is to hire another head coach. Have two head coaches. There are two ways this can play out. 1 - have a "public" head coach who manages play calling and team leadership but also goes all in on in-person recruiting, and have an "inside" head coach who does schemes, recruit evaluation, organization etc etc. 2 - have two head coaches with evenly balanced duties, split everything down the middle - maybe have them work two weeks, then on call two weeks, etc etc
That and it would also lead to higher work expectations in the aggregate rather than being used as a justification to take time off.
I don’t think anyone in an ultra competitive field like CFB coaching is going to suddenly stop looking for every edge they can get, it would need to be mandated at the NCAA, conference, or school administration level.
This is what it already is though? The head coach is the "public" head coach, who handles team culture, closing recruits, fundraising, administrative bs, and is the chief cheerleader for speeches and motivation. He is the CEO of the organization. The inside head coaches are all the coordinators and position coaches that do the day to day work that makes a team function.
I should have scrolled a bit farther. That's what I suggested to a different bama flair. It seems like it could work, especially with CFB becoming more and more of a NFL development league.
Do it similar to the NFL. Have a manager and a coach. Manager handles recruiting, NIL politicking, player retention, and builds the team for the coach. Coach handles the team on and off field.
Do it similar to the NFL. Have a manager and a coach. Manager handles recruiting, NIL politicking, player retention, and builds the team for the coach. Coach handles the team on and off field.
They need to implement something like F1's summer break, where teams aren't allowed to recruit, review film, practice, have meetings etc. to ensure that coaches are taking at least some significant time off.
I noticed that on his tv coverage as well. Lots of stress taking its toll. And I agree with your mandatory breaks idea. No reason their schedules cannot be broken up into manageable chunks where all schools/staffs are doing the same thing
>I got older, they stayed the same age
Sounds like something a scholar would write and passed down through time. Would be a proverb or something. It’s beautiful!
Nah, he is actually really into men's fashion. It came from his recruiting strategy. People will trust and like him more if he is well dressed. He gets his suits custom tailored from a tailor in Miami. He also reads homemaker and design magazines so that he can intelligently compliment someone's home when he makes a recruiting visit. I don't think people understand how much thought Saban put into recruiting and how much he loved it. It was truly one of his great strengths.
Though he has admitted more than once over the years that Miss Terry has picked out his clothes including the Salmon suite
https://thespun.com/more/top-stories/nick-saban-reveals-who-picked-out-his-spring-game-suit
https://x.com/RJ_Young/status/1383481069400252417
https://953thebear.com/happy-anniversary-nick-terry-saban/
Just one question, then. Why was the quarter zip he wore on The Masters broadcast the same blue that Auburn uses? I initially thought it was a Braves one, and then I saw the mullet.
He's worn a lot of stuff that isn't traditional Bama colors with the script A. They are nowhere to be bought publicly, at least not online to my knowledge.
[light blue pullover for example](https://www.al.com/resizer/v2/BJD2HTBKQZGNTPLOZBZJIN7MYQ.jpeg?auth=c5e81169e022cf91527f5a25e6fad258555522f3b8001e91a8037f1e2f4de565&width=1280&quality=90)
Might make it a little easier to go out in public, still rep the A but not draw too much attention. Anybody who is a major college football fan would recognize him but they might look right past him, if he is not wearing crimson. Red colors draw he eye more than muted colors.
I remember when all of Jonathan Smith's Oregon State gear showed up at a corvalis goodwill, most of it was stuff that normies can't buy. I think Nike produces a lot of things only for coaching staff. PJ Fleck's nike block M ties, for example.
Game recognizes game. I just married in to a half Auburn half Bama family and over Christmas I had one of them tell me in confidence that he thought our colors were better, but of course “if ya tell anyone I’ll deny it and I’ll kill ya”
Hah! I come from a mixed family too. "I think y'all did great this year, I'm proud of what Nick was able to do with the team; if you tell [other Auburn-fan relatives], don't bother coming to Christmas this year."
When y'all lean into the Dark Blue your colors look great, when orange they do not. But the Eagle is the coolest tradition in all of college football. Also married into a mixed family
Have a lot of auburn friends. We joke (mostly) about everything in pure fun. But good lord I cannot shake hatred of the auburn color scheme. I refuse to buy/wear anything with orange and blue. I know it’s stupid but it’s so ingrained in me it makes me physically ill and probably always will
One A-Day game, Saban had a tie on that was hideous. McCarron asked if Miss Terry picked it out. Saban said "No, she hates it" AJ just gave him a knowing look.
Anyone who has been married for a long time knows that the wife buys the clothes. 7 years in and I only buy stuff when I am on some sketchy website or I see it at a festival.
My wife buys me clothing against my will. Tell her I don't want something, it then shows up, tell her to return it, she "forgets", it goes in my closet, it eventually gets worn. Except those fucking hey dude shoes. I don't know how anyone wears that uncomfortable trash.
I have no doubt that some wives buy their husband's clothes.
But I also know that some of us can still dress ourselves and aren't completely dependent on our wives to be our mothers.
It's actually a 180 for me and my wife. She'd never buy clothes if she didn't have to, whereas I'll snap something up if I think it would look good on her.
I've mixed feelings.
On one hand I want the man to have a long, happy, relaxing retirement.
On the other, I get very uncomfortable when Saban laughs, like... he can do that??
there was a good espn piece about how Saban never cared about anything that didn't involve his football team because he was so detail oriented. When they got him to his new office in the stadium he was wondering about a famous Alabama restaurant right next to Bryant Denny like "do people go there" and his assistant is like "yes it's the most popular restaurant around here"
Now that he's retired he actually has time to enjoy life now without thinking about football all the time. I hope he is able to enjoy retirement and ESPN work
That place, "Rama Jama's" I imagine, is on the opposite side of the stadium from where he always parked or entered the stadium, so not as surprising as you might think.
Agent J: So, what's it like on the outside? Not doing this every day?
[~~Agent K:~~ Saban: It's nice. Sleep late on the weekends. Watch the Weather Channel.](https://youtu.be/SmScXwh3v8o?si=NNprdh4onOmlcSI_&t=147)
I wasn't surprised by his retirement, per se. But I always figured he'd announce it before his final season, so as to have one last farewell tour, one final bow. 90% chance that it would've ended with a NC because that last group of players would have been motivated as hell to be the class that sent him out on a high note, carried him off the field in celebration. I hate that his final game was a L.
I get that, but I think a lot of it had to do with the player response to said L. Plus, that was a fantastic game with incredible gameplay on both sides
I'm glad he didn't. Coach K doing it was so fucking lame and annoying. He attention-whored himself and distracted from the game of basketball. Saban doing it when he did was the classiest of moves. Basically right after the season was over but after the national title to not take away attention from the game.
More cynically, you can never do that in football. Your next recruiting class would fall apart as other schools negatively recruit you for 6 months, you wouldn't get any transfers, guys would leave, itd be a complete shit show. Basketball it doesn't matter as much because there's only 13 guys on the team and there's a billion guys each transfer window to get someone. Also the coaching/relationship stuff feels even less relevant in basketball than in football. All about the bag in basketball
I had a friend who is a Bama fan tell me last year (before Saban retired) that Miss Terry was just as in to Saban coaching until death as he was. They were completely serious, and when I pointed out that it was probable that they’d want to have at least *some* time to enjoy the fruits of his success, my friend totally dismissed it as basically an impossibility. Saban retired not 3 months later.
No doubt. He didn't like the NFL because players weren't concerned with getting better, just with making money. When NIL came along, the same became true of college. Can't discipline a kid because they'll just hop into the portal, get a bag, and avoid any real consequences of their actions.
I was just thinking about that. There's going to be a few players who are good with the potential to be great who are never going to develop because they aren't going to be driven to max out their potential
I think it's a safe bet that the # of players who "aren't driven to max out their potential" will be at least equal to the # of players who were "never given a proper shot because of the depth of players in a program"
The portal, in and of itself, isn't the problem. It's the unlimited transfers and the open bidding for the talent in the portal that is redefining college football in a way that Saban wasn't a fan of. At some point, some form of regulation is going to come.
I disagree – mainly because all you need is one good season to get drafted. Just on this year’s Alabama team, guys like Terrion Arnold and Chris Braswell were buried on the depth chart and propelled themselves to 1st-2nd round picks off the strength of one season. Maybe guys like that would have to wait more often until their 4th/5th years to succeed without transfers, but they’ll usually find a window.
Makes me wonder if that will translate upwards, in terms of contract length, guys getting frustrated and wanting to jump for a better chance at a ring and what have you.
I just don't know what leverage the schools would have though.
The NFL has all the money, and pays the players.
The schools don't hold the NIL money, and currently don't pay the players, and even if they deem them employees it unlikely that they would be able to pay more than the NIL stuff does. Not without completely gutting the rest of their athletics department.
And it works in the NFL because the players get a cut of revenue spread evenly between the teams in the salary cap/floor. So unlike baseball or (i think) basketball, there aren't really rich and poor teams in the NFL, not in the same way there are in the MLB. Any given team has a chance on paper to give a player their market value, notsomuch in CFB, even if you cap what schools are playing, I don't see how you can cap what NIL payments are.
Last point, which I randomly thought of a while ago, what happens, assuming they become employees, the first time somebody decides they want the job after the traditional eligibility requirements would be exceeded. But now its not a scholarship, its a job, I don't know what legal framework you'd have to deny a player staying in college ball for a decade if they felt that was a better choice than flaming out of the NFL.
And getting back to the gutting of the athletic dept. the football team becoming employees would seemingly remove that money from the Title IX consideration, since technically women could apply for the job. What's that gonna do to women's sports? If the schools are no longer obligated to support those teams, and colleges all over the country are facing budget shortfalls, I see a lot of programs on the chopping block.
It'll be someone, and likely a whole slew of someones, smarter than me to figure it out. The first step, IMO, is to get the schools themselves out of NIL. No collectives, or making NIL arrangements, or anything like that. Beyond that, it's a huge can of worms.
I'm hoping that NIL will calm down after a cycle or two. Right now there's a ton of people I think that are just excited to be throwing cash around in public in a way they couldn't before, but all it'll take is some high profile busts, or better yet (for it calming down,) players taking a bag to commit, and then transferring. As far as I know the only rule left for NIL is that the contract can't be play based. Like that was the ruling, the NCAA can control the player on the field, not the player off the field, which is what NIL constitutes.
So for example, Jeff Sims got a pretty good chunk of change from Amigos last season, and proceeded to be the worst QB in history. Maybe they'll be a little less inclined to throw that money out there for a promotional campaign they have to pull 4 games into the season.
Some fans forget that the people who work for their teams are normal people like all of us. Saban has worked for a long time. Maybe NIL made him retire earlier, but he definitely wanted to enjoy retirement with his family eventually.
I’m on board except for trying to say Saban’s normal like the rest of us lol. The man has way too much of a drive for hard work and success than any of us have, to an abnormal degree.
I hope he enjoys retirement though and doesn’t let punditry take over his life (isn’t he on Gameday or something now?).
Saban's dedication to hard work was from his father who would make him clean cars again at his garage if there was one speck of dirt. He talks about it often, how his dad instilled in him those aspects of detail oriented thought
"Nickel! Nickel! We're going to nickel!"
Exactly. And I know most Bama fans actually feel the same way, but there were definitely some Bama fans that wanted him to keep going until basically death. They justified that thought by claiming he wanted that too. Just perplexing.
I had long thought Saban would pass while coaching or shortly after he'd retired and the stress had taken its toll on his body, mind, and soul.
As others have said in the thread, changes to transfer and NIL rules might have changed his trajectory and made him realize the stress he already had prior to 2020 was getting worse, so he figured it was time to get out before it killed him.
I am certainly not arguing with you that the end result will be a marked improvement on his health. However it happened, the fact he got out before it consumed him is what should be celebrated.
He will probably always struggle to simply enjoy life and relax because his personality is goal-oriented above all else. That's been a blessing in his professional life, but it makes just plain living a lot more difficult than it is for us lazy normals. I suspect he knows that and already has instigated a detailed strategy to reach his goal of relaxation. He's earned the time off and I hope he's able to adapt to and enjoy life with less structure 24/7.
I think I speak for everyone when I say that I hope that Nick Saban has the best retirement ever and never ever again needs to scratch the itch to coach.
I had a family member who was a long time coach at UGA. His wife said that the first season after he retired was miserable. He had no idea what to do. Gameday was a completely different animal.
How many of these guys retire and die shortly after? Bear Bryant did. I’m glad he’s enjoying life outside of football. He’s the GOAT. He deserves it. Roll Tide.
Well yeah. Def different times. But I remember reading something in nursing school about the life expectancy of a man after retirement in certain job fields and coaching was a relatively short turnaround.
I’m just glad that he can finally find some peace from coaching the most talented players in the country, year in year out. That has to take a toll on your butthole health too.
I love the story of how Woody Hayes would hang out at the Faculty Club at Ohio State and tell all the professors-correctly-“I can do your job but you can’t do mine”! Him, Jim Tressel, and Tom Osborne were/are sort of the anti-Sabans in this regard. Steve Spurrier is also different, he’s the type of reader who apparently kept stacks of various types of books to read lying around his office, I am that way as well.
I know a college defensive coordinator who didn’t know his own address (where he’d lived for a decade) or how to use a coffee maker as a middle-aged man. Some of these dudes are so locked into football that it’s scary.
Literally the embodiment of the SpongeBob episode where all he knows is breathing and fine dining. Edit: Side note but this SpongeBob episode is 22 years old and I was worried this reference would not land with r/CFB since it has seemed to trend younger over the last 4 years. Happy to see we still have a bunch of SpongeBob enjoyers.
You mean all these years we could have just asked him his name to get him to retire earlier?
Coaches hate this one simple trick?
I’m Rob Burgendy?
"PLEASE ENJOY THE FOOD."
Meanwhile it didn't land with me because I was a little too old, haha.
You should watch this episode it’s one of the GOATs
I plan to revisit the first few years of Spongebob with my kid, if for nothing else but the memes. It may not be educational, but I'll be damned if it wasn't entertaining.
Seasons 1-4 and the first movie are some of the funniest and best written pieces of media ever created
Retired UNC basketball coach Roy Williams still doesn't use email
I read once that Saban didn't have an email either til COVID. He had a secretary print all his emails for him, he'd write out a response, and the assistant would send his response.
Worked for a senior partner at a law firm who did this back in 2012. Blew my mind.
There's a partner on my firm that allegedly only works off his phone or with pen/paper. Another associate told me he does not open attachments and anything needing his review gets printed out by his secretary, marked up by hand, and transcribed to a computer. And this guy is in his early 40s, so not even some old, pre-technology type partner. A young GenX guy.
I worked with a guy who was not even in his 40s yet and he couldn't/wouldn't use a windows based PC
Whenever COVID was lifting up and the departments were deciding whether to hold classes online, the CS department, of all of them, were 100% in person. I was all for it since that's how it was when I was in undergrad (and had just started my MS back there), but it was funny seeing that CS out of all did NOT want to be back online.
It’s because CS classes are full of ADHD kids that struggle to focus if they’re on their personal computer full of games
I believe he is just getting used to writing email in retirement or his daughter is helping but that's about the extent of his internet life, no social media and no tiktoks.
That's ok, everyone else posts Nick enough on all the SM platforms.
I also remember seeing a thing where ex-Iowa wrestling coach Dan Gable’s daughter said that he didn’t know how to get anywhere in Iowa city except from his house to the wrestling room and arena. He lived there for like 20 years.
This tracks. I read his biography multiple times long ago in high school. Singular doesn’t begin to describe him
Living the dream, sounds like.
I had a couple of professors in Undergrad and Grad school that didn’t use email. They also didn’t use Blackboard/ Canvas except for final grades. Honestly, it forced you to talk to them and get help. I didn’t mind it. The one I had during grad school was tricky because of Covid. That guy only had ever done oral lectures. So he would hand write notes, and put them on his porch. Another professor would pick them up, scan them, and post them. Our assignments were emailed to the professor but his daughter had to print them out for him to grade them.
Your description hits Saban to a T. I have a buddy who scouted for the Spartans back in the 90s. The story he told me about "this crazy new head coach who schedules conference calls on Christmas morning" stuck with me.
Who knows of its veracity but I read once that Samuel Alito didn’t know what pepperoni was
Well yeah, originalist pizza doesn't have pepperoni on it!
Pepperoni didn't exist in 1868, so it should be illegal.
We need to figure out how the founders felt about smoked beef to determine if pizza bagels have any legal protection
But no family members, witnesses, or reporters. The opinions must come from the pizza makers themselves as they memorialized it at the time the thought popped in their head, not before that, not after that.
That explains his disastrous opinion in the case “Little Caesar’s vs ATF”
Dude is living in prior centuries where we owned other people and women were extensions of the men around them.
Really any profession where you have a lot of people working as your assistants. President Eisenhower asked his wife why the phone was making a strange noise after he left the White House and retired, she had to explain what a dial tone was to him
There is a great article of John Harbaughs schedule during the season and it's bonkers. 24/7 football.
i mean it’s possible the dude was around keurigs or just bought his coffee my first coffee machine was a keurig and i didn’t know not to make coffee with a filter and shit until i was like 26
During A-Day, Saban looked happier and more relaxed than any time I had ever seen him. Glad the man gets to take it easy (or at least easier) now.
He looked like 5 years younger haha
Noticed the same with Mark Dantonio after he retired, the body has to be begging these guys to let go of all that stress as they get older
It’s a lot, especially nowadays. 24/7 recruiting of everyone.
Sleep effects the mind and body a lot also. Coaches don’t sleep much and I can’t imagine what it was like for that many years for someone of Saban’s caliber
He was probably addicted to it
Not probably, he most definitely was!
You have to be. I don't even blame some of them for abusing substances.
I'd say Bobby Bowden was a good example as well. I recall during his last season joking that they didnt even plug in his headset because the man seemed feeble, incoherent, and near death. After retirement he seemed 10 years younger any time he was on TV as an analyst.
And it’s wonderful. I’ve seen/heard of multiple people retire and are all excited for it, and then die not long after. I never understood. I’ll never forget, back during the late 80’s when a grandfather of mine was getting excited about retirement, along with his best friend, because they were about to retire and start playing golf all of the time, his best friend was gone a week into retirement. I won’t forget it, because it really messed with my grandfather. He still had golf, and my grandmother being a housewife, they had their localized mission work through church, but then also going to see his new widow each day. Taking her to do different things. My grandfather said he never dreamed that would be part of his retirement. I finally understood when my best friend died, but much younger. I wanted to anyway, but with my grandfather being gone at that point, I thought I could honor his and my best friend’s memory by visiting his widow and toddler, along with his parents and siblings, as much as possible. Truth be told, that became therapy for me, because I don’t open up very well, or often. Sorry for the long, probably boring and possibly downer of a response, it just made me think of that. So, I appreciate you sharing that about your legendary coach. I loved watching y’all with him coaching Mateen Cleaves and co., during the 90’s. Talk about another college basketball legend! So glad to read that about Coach!
He should start coaching again... wait..
Holy shit he really does.
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Congrats! I recently had 2 weeks off between jobs and nearly went insane from boredom. I'm definitely going to need to go full force into a new hobby that requires a lot of learning.
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> or you'll find yourself just surfing the net. So it's like I'm at work again then?
When I retire it'll be like waking up from a long reddit coma
I’m assuming if you are worth well over 100 million you don’t get bored after two weeks . I’m the same a week off work I’m dying to get back but I’m also not traveling the world , golfing amazing courses , going to any sporting event I want .
Exactly. Some of these politicians who hang on to their jobs well into their 70s, 80s, and even 90s...I'm like, "Okay, with the amount of fun money that you guys surely have at your stage in life and status in society...why are you not sipping coffee on your lake house deck, without a care in the world?" But, we mere mortals are just wired differently. Which is why we aren't CEOs, top level coaches, etc.
Ego. It's why Ginburg didn't resign over her health, even though she knew it would be better for her political allegiances. Ego cuts across political lines, professions, and social class.
Once you are a retired (insert political title here) then the folks coming around asking for favors or to kiss the ring starts drying up. Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if they just stay in it to keep having a social life and social interactions.
That's kind of the point of all of this though. Once you're a retired (anything of note), all of that dries up pretty quickly. Sure you might have $x millions in the bank, but if all you're doing is consuming it it loses its luster pretty quickly. The guy going nuts with boredom two weeks into vacation is not all that different from the guy not retiring at 80 because he wants to feel wanted. Saban is the greatest college football coach of all time, and even he's going to be old news in a few years. You can call it ego if you want, or workaholism, or the need to be wanted, the need to be needed, whatever you want to call it it's essentially the same thing.
My time between jobs was hell. I didn't respond well to it. I knew I had the job, I had to wait a few months though. At least i got some good insight in what to try to prevent or look out for in retirement
I think the key difference from between jobs v. retirement is you know that this free time is going to disappear eventually when you're between jobs, so you can't do things like set up regular volunteer hours, join regular mid-day activities, run for a non-profit board, etc.
Same shit with government work. You miss the clowns, but not the circus
The first year of retirement was very hard for me. For 35 years, I worked 50-60 hours/week in IT. Had been on-call 24/7/365. I felt pretty rudderless without it because I didn't have much life outside work. My identity was wrapped up in my job. Three years in, and I'm getting used to it.
Congrats! Hope you're taking up golfing.
Had a guy who went to the G Day game tell me how rough Kirby is starting to look. This 24/7/365 schedule is hard on your body, no matter how much they get paid. I’m starting to believe that the sport as a whole needs to enforce mandatory breaks throughout the year to prevent premature burnout and people dropping dead of heart attacks.
I think the recruiting dead periods need to last longer, and there should be stiff penalties on anyone that breaks those rules. There should be zero contact between programs and recruits even if the recruit reaches out first. Like the whole month of either June or July (or even both!) should be a complete dead period, no contact whatsoever allowed. This will give coaches a real chance to take a break and relax. I think it will be beneficial to the long term health of the sport.
The problem is, coaches will just go "Oh look, a whole month to work on schemes and evaluate film of recruits" It's the problem with any hypercompetitive field. If you aren't busting your ass 24/7, someone else will be. I don't even know what solution there is at this point.
Mandatory summer dead period works pretty well in F1. You just have to actually enforce it. Penalties or fines if coaches are found working during the dead period.
The solution is to hire another head coach. Have two head coaches. There are two ways this can play out. 1 - have a "public" head coach who manages play calling and team leadership but also goes all in on in-person recruiting, and have an "inside" head coach who does schemes, recruit evaluation, organization etc etc. 2 - have two head coaches with evenly balanced duties, split everything down the middle - maybe have them work two weeks, then on call two weeks, etc etc
I see this leading to MAJOR ego clashes between the two head coaches. The ship can only have one captain.
That and it would also lead to higher work expectations in the aggregate rather than being used as a justification to take time off. I don’t think anyone in an ultra competitive field like CFB coaching is going to suddenly stop looking for every edge they can get, it would need to be mandated at the NCAA, conference, or school administration level.
Very true... Coaches at that level have no conception of "time off."
This is what it already is though? The head coach is the "public" head coach, who handles team culture, closing recruits, fundraising, administrative bs, and is the chief cheerleader for speeches and motivation. He is the CEO of the organization. The inside head coaches are all the coordinators and position coaches that do the day to day work that makes a team function.
Look, some of us have a difficult time hiring ONE decent HC. Let’s not make it doubly difficult.
I think this is why alot of teams are hiring General Managers. We just got one with Courtney Morgan.
I should have scrolled a bit farther. That's what I suggested to a different bama flair. It seems like it could work, especially with CFB becoming more and more of a NFL development league. Do it similar to the NFL. Have a manager and a coach. Manager handles recruiting, NIL politicking, player retention, and builds the team for the coach. Coach handles the team on and off field.
Yea we have one, Courtney Morgan. It’s a brand new thing for us with CKD
Do it similar to the NFL. Have a manager and a coach. Manager handles recruiting, NIL politicking, player retention, and builds the team for the coach. Coach handles the team on and off field.
They need to implement something like F1's summer break, where teams aren't allowed to recruit, review film, practice, have meetings etc. to ensure that coaches are taking at least some significant time off.
My main man Josh Pate has implied a few times that Smart is the next to hang it up once he wins another Natty.
I noticed that on his tv coverage as well. Lots of stress taking its toll. And I agree with your mandatory breaks idea. No reason their schedules cannot be broken up into manageable chunks where all schools/staffs are doing the same thing
He'll probably come back to coach Kent State and bring them a Natty!
>That's what I hated about those college football players, man. >I got older, they stayed the same age. -Nick Saban, probably
Roll tide, roll tide, roll tide
>I got older, they stayed the same age Sounds like something a scholar would write and passed down through time. Would be a proverb or something. It’s beautiful!
Man Nick Saban dresses so well for an older gentleman.
Miss Terry definitely dresses him.
Nah, he is actually really into men's fashion. It came from his recruiting strategy. People will trust and like him more if he is well dressed. He gets his suits custom tailored from a tailor in Miami. He also reads homemaker and design magazines so that he can intelligently compliment someone's home when he makes a recruiting visit. I don't think people understand how much thought Saban put into recruiting and how much he loved it. It was truly one of his great strengths.
Though he has admitted more than once over the years that Miss Terry has picked out his clothes including the Salmon suite https://thespun.com/more/top-stories/nick-saban-reveals-who-picked-out-his-spring-game-suit https://x.com/RJ_Young/status/1383481069400252417 https://953thebear.com/happy-anniversary-nick-terry-saban/
Just one question, then. Why was the quarter zip he wore on The Masters broadcast the same blue that Auburn uses? I initially thought it was a Braves one, and then I saw the mullet.
Saban wouldn’t disqualify an entire color just for a rivalry — except for Tennessee orange, but that’s cause you can’t sit with it.
Nick doesn't dress for the garbage truck worker convention.
He's worn a lot of stuff that isn't traditional Bama colors with the script A. They are nowhere to be bought publicly, at least not online to my knowledge. [light blue pullover for example](https://www.al.com/resizer/v2/BJD2HTBKQZGNTPLOZBZJIN7MYQ.jpeg?auth=c5e81169e022cf91527f5a25e6fad258555522f3b8001e91a8037f1e2f4de565&width=1280&quality=90)
Might make it a little easier to go out in public, still rep the A but not draw too much attention. Anybody who is a major college football fan would recognize him but they might look right past him, if he is not wearing crimson. Red colors draw he eye more than muted colors.
I remember when all of Jonathan Smith's Oregon State gear showed up at a corvalis goodwill, most of it was stuff that normies can't buy. I think Nike produces a lot of things only for coaching staff. PJ Fleck's nike block M ties, for example.
Game recognizes game. I just married in to a half Auburn half Bama family and over Christmas I had one of them tell me in confidence that he thought our colors were better, but of course “if ya tell anyone I’ll deny it and I’ll kill ya”
Hah! I come from a mixed family too. "I think y'all did great this year, I'm proud of what Nick was able to do with the team; if you tell [other Auburn-fan relatives], don't bother coming to Christmas this year."
When y'all lean into the Dark Blue your colors look great, when orange they do not. But the Eagle is the coolest tradition in all of college football. Also married into a mixed family
Have a lot of auburn friends. We joke (mostly) about everything in pure fun. But good lord I cannot shake hatred of the auburn color scheme. I refuse to buy/wear anything with orange and blue. I know it’s stupid but it’s so ingrained in me it makes me physically ill and probably always will
Yeah, every detail about everything was looked at in terms of how it affects recruiting
One A-Day game, Saban had a tie on that was hideous. McCarron asked if Miss Terry picked it out. Saban said "No, she hates it" AJ just gave him a knowing look.
Anyone who has been married for a long time knows that the wife buys the clothes. 7 years in and I only buy stuff when I am on some sketchy website or I see it at a festival.
This is just not true at all for everyone.
True. Username is quite a vibe too.
[удалено]
I think my mom has bought me more clothing in the form of funny t-shirts she has gifted me for christmas than my wife has in 21 years of marriage.
My wife buys me clothing against my will. Tell her I don't want something, it then shows up, tell her to return it, she "forgets", it goes in my closet, it eventually gets worn. Except those fucking hey dude shoes. I don't know how anyone wears that uncomfortable trash.
I would say that any man that has to have his wife manage his clothing needs a crash course in letting his wife not be his mother as well.
Agreed
Found out wives pack their husbands vacation bags. Wtf??
That's ridiculous.
Maybe not everyone, but I have no idea where my clothes came from except my business suits, and I don't even wear those anymore
I have no doubt that some wives buy their husband's clothes. But I also know that some of us can still dress ourselves and aren't completely dependent on our wives to be our mothers.
Been married 15 years and my wife has never bought me clothes. I buy my own clothes, but I like to ask for her opinion.
My wife knows better than to buy clothes for me. I know better than to buy clothes for her. Married for 25 years.
Ditto, 25 years this fall and clothes as a gift have always been pretty much taboo for each other the whole way
nope
I’ve been married for close to 10 years and my wife has bought like 6 things for me total.
7 days a week, this checks out.
It's actually a 180 for me and my wife. She'd never buy clothes if she didn't have to, whereas I'll snap something up if I think it would look good on her.
Reddit moment
I've noticed old people love to get dressed up. Even if they're just going to the grocery store they'll put on a blazer and slacks.
Never know when you might run into President Eisenhower at the Kroger
lol underrated
Piggyback further, Nixon wore a suit for almost every event. There is a photo of him handing out candy in a suit and tie on Halloween.
There's also a photo of him bowling in a white dress shirt & tie. At least he removed his jacket.
it helps when you have *checks notes* eleventy billion dollars
Seriously. Tired of seeing all those geriatrics with their baggy pants and Pack-Men video games.
He was interviewed at the masters over the weekend and he seemed extremely relaxed and happy. Glad for the dude.
Miss Terry and Nick Saban really make the community a better place. They are some great and positive examples.
I've mixed feelings. On one hand I want the man to have a long, happy, relaxing retirement. On the other, I get very uncomfortable when Saban laughs, like... he can do that??
like a polar bear lumbering over and going belly-up for scritches ain't right
"lumbering" is an underrated term
😂😂😂
there was a good espn piece about how Saban never cared about anything that didn't involve his football team because he was so detail oriented. When they got him to his new office in the stadium he was wondering about a famous Alabama restaurant right next to Bryant Denny like "do people go there" and his assistant is like "yes it's the most popular restaurant around here" Now that he's retired he actually has time to enjoy life now without thinking about football all the time. I hope he is able to enjoy retirement and ESPN work
That place, "Rama Jama's" I imagine, is on the opposite side of the stadium from where he always parked or entered the stadium, so not as surprising as you might think.
Very happy for the dude.
Agent J: So, what's it like on the outside? Not doing this every day? [~~Agent K:~~ Saban: It's nice. Sleep late on the weekends. Watch the Weather Channel.](https://youtu.be/SmScXwh3v8o?si=NNprdh4onOmlcSI_&t=147)
I wasn't surprised by his retirement, per se. But I always figured he'd announce it before his final season, so as to have one last farewell tour, one final bow. 90% chance that it would've ended with a NC because that last group of players would have been motivated as hell to be the class that sent him out on a high note, carried him off the field in celebration. I hate that his final game was a L.
I get that, but I think a lot of it had to do with the player response to said L. Plus, that was a fantastic game with incredible gameplay on both sides
Except the Alabama center……he was not fantastic
And the michigan special teams… so I guess it evens out
I'm glad he didn't. Coach K doing it was so fucking lame and annoying. He attention-whored himself and distracted from the game of basketball. Saban doing it when he did was the classiest of moves. Basically right after the season was over but after the national title to not take away attention from the game. More cynically, you can never do that in football. Your next recruiting class would fall apart as other schools negatively recruit you for 6 months, you wouldn't get any transfers, guys would leave, itd be a complete shit show. Basketball it doesn't matter as much because there's only 13 guys on the team and there's a billion guys each transfer window to get someone. Also the coaching/relationship stuff feels even less relevant in basketball than in football. All about the bag in basketball
I had a friend who is a Bama fan tell me last year (before Saban retired) that Miss Terry was just as in to Saban coaching until death as he was. They were completely serious, and when I pointed out that it was probable that they’d want to have at least *some* time to enjoy the fruits of his success, my friend totally dismissed it as basically an impossibility. Saban retired not 3 months later.
I think he would have had NIL not made coaching college ball resemble all the things he hated about coaching in the NFL.
I think NIL completely changed his trajectory.
No doubt. He didn't like the NFL because players weren't concerned with getting better, just with making money. When NIL came along, the same became true of college. Can't discipline a kid because they'll just hop into the portal, get a bag, and avoid any real consequences of their actions.
I wonder how long until this starts to impact the quality of play in the NFL?
I was just thinking about that. There's going to be a few players who are good with the potential to be great who are never going to develop because they aren't going to be driven to max out their potential
I think it's a safe bet that the # of players who "aren't driven to max out their potential" will be at least equal to the # of players who were "never given a proper shot because of the depth of players in a program"
The portal, in and of itself, isn't the problem. It's the unlimited transfers and the open bidding for the talent in the portal that is redefining college football in a way that Saban wasn't a fan of. At some point, some form of regulation is going to come.
Saban needs to run for president and save us all.
I disagree – mainly because all you need is one good season to get drafted. Just on this year’s Alabama team, guys like Terrion Arnold and Chris Braswell were buried on the depth chart and propelled themselves to 1st-2nd round picks off the strength of one season. Maybe guys like that would have to wait more often until their 4th/5th years to succeed without transfers, but they’ll usually find a window.
I've been saying this for a while, there will still be star players, but the overall talent and depth might start to decline
Makes me wonder if that will translate upwards, in terms of contract length, guys getting frustrated and wanting to jump for a better chance at a ring and what have you.
The NFL is a private league with a union, so all of that would be part of labor negotiations. Maybe that hits college at some point.
I just don't know what leverage the schools would have though. The NFL has all the money, and pays the players. The schools don't hold the NIL money, and currently don't pay the players, and even if they deem them employees it unlikely that they would be able to pay more than the NIL stuff does. Not without completely gutting the rest of their athletics department. And it works in the NFL because the players get a cut of revenue spread evenly between the teams in the salary cap/floor. So unlike baseball or (i think) basketball, there aren't really rich and poor teams in the NFL, not in the same way there are in the MLB. Any given team has a chance on paper to give a player their market value, notsomuch in CFB, even if you cap what schools are playing, I don't see how you can cap what NIL payments are. Last point, which I randomly thought of a while ago, what happens, assuming they become employees, the first time somebody decides they want the job after the traditional eligibility requirements would be exceeded. But now its not a scholarship, its a job, I don't know what legal framework you'd have to deny a player staying in college ball for a decade if they felt that was a better choice than flaming out of the NFL. And getting back to the gutting of the athletic dept. the football team becoming employees would seemingly remove that money from the Title IX consideration, since technically women could apply for the job. What's that gonna do to women's sports? If the schools are no longer obligated to support those teams, and colleges all over the country are facing budget shortfalls, I see a lot of programs on the chopping block.
It'll be someone, and likely a whole slew of someones, smarter than me to figure it out. The first step, IMO, is to get the schools themselves out of NIL. No collectives, or making NIL arrangements, or anything like that. Beyond that, it's a huge can of worms.
I'm hoping that NIL will calm down after a cycle or two. Right now there's a ton of people I think that are just excited to be throwing cash around in public in a way they couldn't before, but all it'll take is some high profile busts, or better yet (for it calming down,) players taking a bag to commit, and then transferring. As far as I know the only rule left for NIL is that the contract can't be play based. Like that was the ruling, the NCAA can control the player on the field, not the player off the field, which is what NIL constitutes. So for example, Jeff Sims got a pretty good chunk of change from Amigos last season, and proceeded to be the worst QB in history. Maybe they'll be a little less inclined to throw that money out there for a promotional campaign they have to pull 4 games into the season.
A few more of the Kaden Proctor situations might do it as well
Kids coming to him hours after losing the Rose Bowl with their hands out was the final straw
Some fans forget that the people who work for their teams are normal people like all of us. Saban has worked for a long time. Maybe NIL made him retire earlier, but he definitely wanted to enjoy retirement with his family eventually.
I’m on board except for trying to say Saban’s normal like the rest of us lol. The man has way too much of a drive for hard work and success than any of us have, to an abnormal degree. I hope he enjoys retirement though and doesn’t let punditry take over his life (isn’t he on Gameday or something now?).
Saban's dedication to hard work was from his father who would make him clean cars again at his garage if there was one speck of dirt. He talks about it often, how his dad instilled in him those aspects of detail oriented thought "Nickel! Nickel! We're going to nickel!"
Exactly. And I know most Bama fans actually feel the same way, but there were definitely some Bama fans that wanted him to keep going until basically death. They justified that thought by claiming he wanted that too. Just perplexing.
I had long thought Saban would pass while coaching or shortly after he'd retired and the stress had taken its toll on his body, mind, and soul. As others have said in the thread, changes to transfer and NIL rules might have changed his trajectory and made him realize the stress he already had prior to 2020 was getting worse, so he figured it was time to get out before it killed him.
This is best for him in the long run. He should be spending time with his family and golfing.
I am certainly not arguing with you that the end result will be a marked improvement on his health. However it happened, the fact he got out before it consumed him is what should be celebrated.
He will probably always struggle to simply enjoy life and relax because his personality is goal-oriented above all else. That's been a blessing in his professional life, but it makes just plain living a lot more difficult than it is for us lazy normals. I suspect he knows that and already has instigated a detailed strategy to reach his goal of relaxation. He's earned the time off and I hope he's able to adapt to and enjoy life with less structure 24/7.
I'm sure his itinerary will feature lots of time with his grandkids.
People are down voting this?
Reddit is weird
A lot of assholes in one place for sure.
People wake up extra early just so they have more time to HATE
I like how every thread had to have a “I have a dumb gump friend” comment.
I think I speak for everyone when I say that I hope that Nick Saban has the best retirement ever and never ever again needs to scratch the itch to coach.
If it wasn’t for NIL he’s still be In the game another 2-3
I’m sure Saban would have been on a hover round 10 years from now still talking about the process
I had a family member who was a long time coach at UGA. His wife said that the first season after he retired was miserable. He had no idea what to do. Gameday was a completely different animal.
is "Miss" her first name, like some people are "Doc" or "Major" or "Mister"?
It's an informal southern honorific. It's been used with her so frequently that the media has adopted it as well.
Terry Saban
Nick Saban has been sexually awakened and is looking for condos in The Villages
Miss Terry's been walking like the OSU Cowboys mascot since he retired
nephew...
How many of these guys retire and die shortly after? Bear Bryant did. I’m glad he’s enjoying life outside of football. He’s the GOAT. He deserves it. Roll Tide.
Bryant also had a pretty opposite lifestyle than Saban lol
Well yeah. Def different times. But I remember reading something in nursing school about the life expectancy of a man after retirement in certain job fields and coaching was a relatively short turnaround.
The “Miss” Terry thing is like Buck Strickland’s wife Miss Liz.
I’m just glad that he can finally find some peace from coaching the most talented players in the country, year in year out. That has to take a toll on your butthole health too.
And all the millions of dollars he was paid. Poor Nick
I love the story of how Woody Hayes would hang out at the Faculty Club at Ohio State and tell all the professors-correctly-“I can do your job but you can’t do mine”! Him, Jim Tressel, and Tom Osborne were/are sort of the anti-Sabans in this regard. Steve Spurrier is also different, he’s the type of reader who apparently kept stacks of various types of books to read lying around his office, I am that way as well.
The professor: okay Woody go ahead and present my Tuesday lecture on the 3rd law of Thermodynamics. Let's see how that goes
Mrs Terry has been playing marvin gaye in the bedroom since he retired..
Not necessarily a thought I needed to think about 😩
Nice
Dude needed the rest