Alabama broadcaster Eli Gold discusses what keeps Nick Saban in college and away from NFL
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Do you think Alabama head coach Nick Saban would ever jump back into the NFL? If you asked that question to Alabama radio broadcaster Eli Gold, the answer is clearly no.
The voice of Alabama football joined Pro Football Talk Wednesday to discuss the 10 former Crimson Tide players heading to the NFL Combine next week, as well as the current state of the football program. According to Gold, Saban would never return to the NFL for one very simple reason — he genuinely loves coaching and teaching young players at the college level.
“He loves what he does and this is what he is,” Gold said to PFT host Mike Florio. “He is a football coach. He is a teacher who is also a football coach. He teaches these young men how to be better players, how to be better people and that was the thing he didn’t like about the National Football League.
“Once he got the players in the NFL, they were who they were. You’re not gonna to be a coach and I just pick this name out of a hat so don’t take anything from it. But you’re not gonna be a coach in the NFL and change a Flozell Adams, he is who he is. Vince Wilfork, he is who he is. You’re not gonna come in and start changing guys, as wonderful a player as those two gentlemen are and were.”
The other aspect of Saban’s job that he loves and wouldn’t be able to do in the NFL, recruiting, is also something Gold believes keeps the Alabama coach in the college ranks.
“I don’t care who you are if you enjoy getting up in the morning and go to work you’re gonna do better than the guy who’s going because he has to and he’s just putting in his time,” Gold said. “Nick Saban loves recruiting, loves coaching, he thrives on this stuff he really does.”
Recruiting is much more fun when you win far more battles than you lose, something only Saban has been able to say as a head coach over the last seven seasons. While Gold’s opinion is likely biased, he surely has more intimate knowledge than most when it comes to the Alabama program and its leader.
As far as Gold sees it, Saban will always be a college coach at heart.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
