TMQ on "Little Nicky" Saban

[VandyLaw]

An excerpt from Gregg Easterbrook's latest TMQ column on ESPN.com (there is more good stuff there, follow the link):

Saban Points Part 3: Little Nicky follows Steve Spurrier as big-deal college coaches who came to the NFL expecting championships and praise, and soon retreated to the college ranks. One thing going on here is that it's much harder to win at the NFL level than at the football-factory level. Football-factory colleges have such incredible recruiting advantages that they often take the field with two or three times as much talent as the opponent, and it's easy to look like a genius coach if your guys are far more talented. In the NFL, the talent contrast between a division winner and the division's last-place team is surprisingly small. Football-factory schedules are rigged with cupcakes, insuring even an orangutan could coach a big-deal college team to several annual wins. In the NFL there are losing teams but no cupcake teams; San Diego had to work hard to beat the Oakland Raiders, this year's worst NFL team. At the football-factory level, coaches are treated like little gods, while press coverage is adulatory; at the NFL level, coaches are under constant criticism, and the media knives are always out. One reason football-factory college coaches seem like little gods is that their advantages in recruiting and cupcake opponents allow them to have several 30-point victories every season, whereas in the NFL, even the best coaches are relieved to beat the Raiders by a touchdown. Runaway victory margins in college help coaches seem like geniuses, while the close margins of most NFL games mean even winning coaches face criticism.

You can't blame Saban and Spurrier for wanting to retreat from a life of criticism to a life on being treated like little gods. The very morning last week that Saban decided to walk out on Miami, he boarded a private jet for Alabama, where he was received by a worshipful throng as if he were Dwight Eisenhower returning from the defeat of Germany. Saban simply left his Miami problems behind, not even bothering to say goodbye to the assistants and players who depended on him. If you're a little god, you go where the worshippers are.

Tuesday Morning Quarterback

 

[CrunchTime]

Due to copyright issues we are not allowed to quote entire articles.

Please re-edit your post to one paragraph and post a valid link to the rest of the article.The one you posted does not work.

 

[djphinfan]

this is a great article but its missing one thing,some dirt on his wretched wife,after all that went down after all the support and belief i gave saban, the one thing that angered me the most was when that wench said "it took us a long time to get out of there but we finally made it,,i hate myself for believing in that little punk of a man,,all i got to say is watch out saban and Mr. saban his wife,karma is a MO FO

 

[VandyLaw]

Due to copyright issues we are not allowed to quote entire articles.

Please re-edit your post to one paragraph and post a valid link to the rest of the article.The one you posted does not work.

I edited the post as requested -- please note that my original quote, though 3 paragraphs, was just a small fraction of the entire article, and that it was attributed.

 

[CrunchTime]

Thanks for complying.The new link works now.

 

[3rd and long]

Yeah, I read that earlier. I thought it was a real good take on the situation. Sounds like he was a little Napoleon.

 

[PhinsRock]

An excerpt from Gregg Easterbrook's latest TMQ column on ESPN.com (there is more good stuff there, follow the link):

Saban Points Part 3: Little Nicky follows Steve Spurrier as big-deal college coaches who came to the NFL expecting championships and praise, and soon retreated to the college ranks. One thing going on here is that it's much harder to win at the NFL level than at the football-factory level. Football-factory colleges have such incredible recruiting advantages that they often take the field with two or three times as much talent as the opponent, and it's easy to look like a genius coach if your guys are far more talented. In the NFL, the talent contrast between a division winner and the division's last-place team is surprisingly small. Football-factory schedules are rigged with cupcakes, insuring even an orangutan could coach a big-deal college team to several annual wins. In the NFL there are losing teams but no cupcake teams; San Diego had to work hard to beat the Oakland Raiders, this year's worst NFL team. At the football-factory level, coaches are treated like little gods, while press coverage is adulatory; at the NFL level, coaches are under constant criticism, and the media knives are always out. One reason football-factory college coaches seem like little gods is that their advantages in recruiting and cupcake opponents allow them to have several 30-point victories every season, whereas in the NFL, even the best coaches are relieved to beat the Raiders by a touchdown. Runaway victory margins in college help coaches seem like geniuses, while the close margins of most NFL games mean even winning coaches face criticism.

You can't blame Saban and Spurrier for wanting to retreat from a life of criticism to a life on being treated like little gods. The very morning last week that Saban decided to walk out on Miami, he boarded a private jet for Alabama, where he was received by a worshipful throng as if he were Dwight Eisenhower returning from the defeat of Germany. Saban simply left his Miami problems behind, not even bothering to say goodbye to the assistants and players who depended on him. If you're a little god, you go where the worshippers are.

Tuesday Morning Quarterback

Good read, thanks.

 

[VandyLaw]

Good read, thanks.

Glad to share. Saban's hasty retreat to Alabama was really a tacit admission that he simply couldn't hack it in the NFL, for many of the reasons set forth in the TMQ article (and in some of the fine threads on this site). The more we learn about Little Nicky's personality and attitude (the "Little Debbie Incident," anyone?) the more we understand why he is a good fit for college, but a poor fit for the pros.

Rather than feeling betrayed by him, I tend to look favorably on his exit now. While it was certainly less than honorable, at least he admitted to himself (if not to the Dolphins organization, players and fans) that he was doomed to be a loser in the NFL. It would have been much worse had he honored his contract and hung around for 3 more years like an albatross around our necks, all the while dreaming of retreating back to the security blanket of the college football factory environment he craved. Once he knew that he couldn't right the ship, it was better that he jump off the sinking vessel like a rat, rather than run it into the ground. At least now we have a chance to find the right people (GM and coach) to bring the Dolphins back to glory. With Saban, we would have been stuck with the wrong man for the job. The only reason we felt betrayed rather than relieved initially was because Saban realized he was going to be an NFL loser long before we the fans did. With the benefit of some time and perspective, it seems obvious now that we are better off without Little Nicky.