Since The Boston Globe first spread the rumor that Nick Saban might leave Alabama for the Cleveland Browns, we’ve pooh-poohed the idea. And we’re not big on pooh-poohing things around here. But since then everyone from Bama AD Mal Moore to Crimson Tide “insiders” to the coach himself have shot down the reports.
Now you can add another name to the list of folks who can’t see Saban leaving Tuscaloosa for another shot at the pro game — current Brown and former Alabama running back Trent Richardson:
“I can’t see him coming to the NFL. I can see him staying at Alabama and retiring at Alabama. That’s what I can see. He just has so much put into it. There’s so much there for him. There’s no reason to leave…
The way he lives his lifestyle down there, the way he loves playing football. He loves intensive football, where every game counts. One game you might be out. That’s the intensity he loves in every game. Those players are just like robots down there. They know what Coach Saban wants and they’re going to do what Coach Saban says.”
No more. Oh, we might put something in headlines when this pops up again, but it’s the last time we’ll write about Saban-to-the-NFL unless Saban actually shocks everyone around him and does leave the college game for the pro game.
As we say each spring when the John-Calipari-to-the-NBA rumors start, if a coach has the primo job in your college sport, why leave it to return to a league where you previously washed out?
