It’s hard to imagine Nick Saban anywhere other than on the sidelines, but the seven-time national champion reportedly once considered trading in his coach’s clipboard for a broadcast headset.
According to an excerpt reported by the New York Post from a new book, The Leadership Secrets of Nick Saban by Al.com senior sports editor John Talty, Saban had a meeting about potentially leaving Alabama for ESPN in 2014.
The possibility of a move to ESPN first surfaced when Saban met with Nick Khan, then a sports media talent agent at CAA, before the ’13 season. During that time, Khan represented top television personalities including Kirk Herbstreit, Skip Bayless, Colin Cowherd, Mike Greenberg and many others, according to Talty.
However, it was after the infamous “Kick Six” loss to Auburn that led Saban to seriously weigh his options, per Talty. After the Crimson Tide was eliminated from national championship contention with a gut-wrenching loss in the Iron Bowl, Saban reportedly “empowered Khan to reach out to ESPN with a message that Saban was thinking about the next chapter in his career and considering whether the media should be a part of it,” Talty reported.
Khan then reportedly set up a meeting between Saban, his coaching agent Jimmy Sexton and Syracuse athletic director John Wildhack, who was a senior executive at ESPN at the time. According to Talty, the Alabama coach said “zero” on the possibility of joining ESPN’s College GameDay, asking Wildhack about life at ESPN, the company’s organizational structure and if it’s like “working on a team.”
Ultimately, Saban decided to return to Tuscaloosa where he has won three national championships since then, but his interest in the role of sports media at the time was legitimate.
“It’s not because we don’t have good conversations and it’s not because he’s not interested in television because he’s attracted to it and he’s interested,” Wildhack said in his book, per the Post. “If he wasn’t interested, he would never have done it in the first place. But I also don’t think he’s ready to step aside as a coach.
Nick Saban’s Leadership Secrets will be released on August 9th.
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