Nick Saban delivered one of his trademark rants on the eve of Thanksgiving, this one lasting almost four minutes and aimed at Alabama football fans who can be “self-absorbed” for being overly focused on the margin of victory.
The root of the question lay in a 42-35 victory by the Crimson Tide, 10-1 and ranked third in the nation, over No. 25 Arkansas on Saturday. The game wasn’t settled until Arkansas’s onside kick went out of bounds with just over a minute left in Bryant-Denny Stadium.
“I’ll tell you what, I’m glad you go to the game that way because I don’t ever go to the game that way,” Saban said. “I have too much respect for the other team, been in too many games, whether we won when we weren’t expected to win or the other team beat us.”
Rat poison, he said, “is rat poison and the media is always going to create it.” It’s not reality, Saban added, and “the biggest [misconception] is, every time a team loses two games, everybody says that team is like done. It’s really just the opposite.”
That was certainly Alabama’s experience this season. Texas A&M lost two games before handing the Tide its only loss, he pointed out and there was a belief that Alabama would crush LSU because they’re “not any good anymore.” But he knew both teams were “dangerous.”
“They’re competitors,” Saban said. “They have moms and dads. They have pride in performance. They have things that they want to accomplish and they want to do and they want to be good. They don’t just throw in the towel. They work harder to try to get better and everybody wants to beat us. We’re going to get everybody’s best game. I don’t know why people can’t understand that.”
This might be the greatest Nick Saban rant of all-time:
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) November 25, 2021
(via @UA_Athletics) pic.twitter.com/dZGTbHujpc
Saban was far from finished and cheers filled the restaurant.
“You can say it’s not fair to our players that they get everybody’s best game, but they do,” Saban said. “They have to be able to compete through that and play over that. I don’t know. When I came here, everybody was happy to win a game. Now we’re not happy to win a game anymore. We’re not happy to win a game at all.”
The cheers grew.
“We think we should win games by whatever,” Saban said. “I don’t think that’s fair to the players either, because our players work their butt off to be the best that they can be, and to get criticized for what they work hard for to do, so that you can be entertained. So that you can enjoy and have pride and passion for what they accomplish and what they do.”
Saban’s voice grew louder and more passionate as he continued, his comments punctuated by his repeated use of his patented “aight.”
“And they’re not perfect. They’re just college students. They go to school every day, they’ve got to study, they have to run extra after practice when they miss study hall.”
After all, he added, “this is not professional football” and players aren’t paid to play.
“They’re representing you all. You should be proud and happy to support them, and appreciate what they do and have some gratitude,” Saban said. “You know what else? Nobody wants to win worse than they do. Not me, not you. I don’t care what kind of fan you are. Nobody wants to win more than the players that play. Nobody.
He had one last message before his voice trailed off.
“Nobody feels worse than they do when they lose. Nobody. So for all you self-absorbed folks out there that can’t look past your own self to appreciate what other people are doing …”
Saban’s team plays at Auburn on Saturday, then faces No. 1 Georgia in the SEC championship game on Dec. 4.
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