Nick Saban is a legend and considered the GOAT college football coach by most people familiar with the sport. He coached his final game after 17 glorious years at Alabama last season. He blamed a changing landscape driven by NIL money, a new breed of entitled athlete and his age as factors in stepping away from the dynasty he built.
Saban turned 73 on Oct. 31, and the celebration was a bit tainted by a news report going around that Saban was blackmailed by a potential recruit.
After hearing about the “blackmailing” incident, former NFL defensive tackle Warren Sapp said on a podcast that he definitely heard the story, and it was one of a few situations that point to how dramatically the college recruiting games changed.
Warren Sapp Says Nick Saban Was Blackmailed By Recruit Wanting $900K
“I heard this past offseason that really, like, drove the point home that the rabbit’s got the gun. Now, they said a kid walked in Nick’s Saban’s office, sat down and looked at him and say, I need $900,000, and you got 48 hours,” Warren said. It sounds like someone’s joking, right? Warren felt the same way when he added, “Can you imagine walking in the head coach? Officer, tell him you gonna give me almost a million dollars, and you got 48 hours. Nah, that ain’t happening. That’s crazy!”
So, what Sapp, who is Deion Sanders’ senior quality control analyst with the Colorado Buffs, described as blackmail, some would describe as the new way of negotiating in college sports.
It was more like an attempted stickup. No mask, Broad daylight. Although, the unidentified recruit might have been offered more money to go elsewhere and wanted to go to Alabama. The only shot you miss 100 percent of the time is the one you don’t take, and unless Sapp left out some other threatening detail, blackmail is a harsh description.
Players have the ability to demand huge sums of money and set the market in college football. This is a dynamic that is completely opposite of Saban’s era where the head coach is the king and the dictator and held the fate of every last player in the palm of his hands. Many players scrounged to live comfortably on campus while their parents struggled financially at home.
New NIL Era Pushed Nick Saban To Retirment
This new way of doing business with elite college athletes pushed a legendary coach like Nick Saban out of the game because he built his program never having to negotiate with his players. Especially not about money.
The fact that a kid can walk into the office of a legendary coach who won seven national titles (six at Bama and one at LSU) and demand a milly while dictating the terms of closure is bold but also well within the rules. It’s a form of player empowerment that educators, administrators and coaches scoff at, but the players and general public supports. Sapp even went on to agree that he doesn’t blame the kid for trying it. It’s just an audacity that a Hall of Famer who grew up playing college ball in the ’80s and ’90s.
Saban undoubtedly told the kid to get lost and when he writes his final memoirs or gives rights to the movie, we will probably find out many more of the wild and crazy stories in the life of Nick Saban as it pertains to the hundreds of players that have come out of his program.
Nick Saban Celebrates 73rd Birthday and $80M Fortune
Saban’s daughter Kristen wished him a happy birthday on social media, singing his legendary praises.
“Happy Birthday to the goat, love you Sabes,” she wrote beside a sophisticated picture of Saban. What a sincere homage! She not only acknowledged his legendary status in college football but also highlighted their family connection by affectionately crowning him the “GOAT.”
Nick Saban has an estimated net worth of $80 million. He’s still doing ESPN “GameDay” appearances and AFLAC commercials. The money is still flowing. The love from the Bama community is plentiful and grows daily, as his predecessor struggles in his first season at the helm.
When the players on his championship teams were winning pre-NIL, he was the one who benefitted from the shoe deals and coaches shows and endorsements because the players couldn’t. He built a fortune off their backs and then took his ball and went home when they changed the game on him. A million dollars? That’s probably what Saban owes each of the top 80 players to suit up during his coaching tenure.
