Nick Saban explains how he ‘used the media to talk to (his) players’ while coaching
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Nick Saban was infamously dead-set on keeping his players from listening to outside noise. No matter how much his teams were talked up in the media, it didn’t matter: it was “rat poison,” which Saban couldn’t risk letting affect his locker room.
Saban himself kept away from watching and reading coverage about his own team, he said during the premiere of ESPN’s documentary, Saban, at the Bama Theatre in Tuscaloosa on Thursday. That attitude extended to his sometimes contentious dealings with the media, where a reporter finding themselves at the other end of a Saban rant was a common occurrence.
Some of his responses to the media had an intended purpose, though, Saban revealed.
“For years, and I actually said this to the media for the first time tonight out there, I used the media to talk to our players. I used the media to talk to our team. Because I wanted them to say things to the team that I wanted the team to hear me say, instead of listening to those expectations,” he said.
Of course, now that Saban himself is part of the media, he’s able to see what it’s like on the other side of the curtain. But his approach while coaching clearly worked: it helped win him seven national championships, one at LSU and six at Alabama.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
