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Shane Gillis says Nick Saban ‘spazzed’ after College GameDay exchange
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Shane Gillis has quite the Nick Saban story to tell.
The popular comedian appeared on College GameDay ahead of the Indiana-Notre Dame game. The two had a memorable back-and-forth that included Gillis making an “Alabama Jones” in reference to Saban’s attire and the former Alabama coach taking issue with accusations of cheating via a Gillis quip about SEC players being “paid” before NIL.
Gillis came away from GameDay feeling Saban was seriously upset with him. Gillis recalled how Saban wasn’t around for the original quip, and may have taken the wrong approach for the desk segment after chatting with Kirk Herbstreit and Pat McAfee.
Gillis discussed GameDay on the latest Matt & Shane’s Secret Podcast. The show is uncensored, and the comedian repeatedly uses NSFW language.
After I said that, we had to go into the stadium to sit at the desk. He wasn’t with us when I said it the first time. So then I got in there and right before we go on, he looks at me and says, ‘I heard what you said.’ And I was like, ‘holy s—!’ And then Herbstreit and McAfee were like, ‘He’s just breaking balls dude, he loves messing with guys, he’s literally just f—ing with you,” Gillis said. “I was like, ‘all right, I’ll f— with him back. I would have never done that if I thought he was serious.”
“I went up to him after and he was like, ‘You think the SEC dominated because we cheated? That’s bull—!’ He spazzed on me,” Gillis said. “After he yelled at me I had to help him down and he like looked around to see if anybody else could help him but I had to help him down. And yeah, I felt really bad about that.
Following GameDay, Saban joined McAfee’s show. He indicated that his daughter is the member of the family who finds Gillis funny.
Not at all. Not at all,” said Saban, responding to the question of whether he’d talked to Gillis. “I understand he’s a comedian, obviously he was much more intimidated by J.J. Watt than he was by me. He was trying to be funny, which, I get it.”
“My daughter loves him,” admitted the coach. “So that kinda soothes the soul a little bit that someone in our family likes the guy.
It’s safe to say Gillis and Saban did not exchange Christmas cards. If the comedian is ever brought back on GameDay, it will be must-see TV.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
