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After listening to Nick Saban bemoan the direction of college football during a congressional hearing this week, I feel more certain Saban made the right decision to retire.
A hallmark of Saban’s greatness was his ability to evolve — if sometimes begrudgingly — to changes within the sport. But adjusting to a landscape in which players enjoy more power, freedom and compensation than ever before became the straw that broke the GOAT’s back.
“All the things I believed in for all these years, 50 years of coaching, no longer exist in college athletics,” Saban, 72, said on the Hill. “It’s always been about developing players. It was always about helping people be more successful in life.”
It’s not about that anymore? Not at all? That’s hard to believe.
I’m supposed to think a coach can’t develop players just because athletes collect booster dollars and they can transfer freely? A coach no longer can help athletes find success?
Consider me skeptical.
What Terry Saban told Nick Saban about NIL
If Saban doesn’t think he can help college athletes anymore, then he’s right where he needs to be: Out to pasture.
Saban added that his wife, Terry, also found the coaching enterprise to be less fulfilling after NIL arrived.
“She came to me right before I retired and said, ‘Why are we doing this?’ ” Saban told lawmakers. “I said, ‘What do you mean?’ She said, ‘All they care about is how much you’re going to pay them. They don’t care about how much you’re going to develop them, which is what we’ve always done.’ “
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Where is it written that a coach can’t develop players who are paid? If the only…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/good-thing-nick-saban-retired-100116294.html
Author : The Tuscaloosa News
Publish date : 2024-03-16 10:01:16
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