Saban Deserves the Media Criticism Thrown His Way

Nick Saban is taking a lot of heat for the way he decided to leave the Dolphins and go to Alabama. (Doug Benc - Getty)

FORT LAUDERDALE -- If ever a NFL head coach was seeking a blueprint on how not to alienate a team's fan base and the media covering the local football franchise, he need only review the final few weeks of Nick Saban's recently self-terminated tenure as head coach of the Miami Dolphins.

It has not been a pretty picture here in South Florida over the last five months, what with the Dolphins falling out of the playoff race within the first six weeks of the schedule, accompanied by a dramatic season-long fall from grace by Saban, hailed only two years ago as the potential savior of this once-proud franchise.

Over the past seven days it has been about as ugly as it gets in the papers and on the local airwaves after the slippery, slimy Saban slithered off to Tuscaloosa last Wednesday to accept an eight-year, $32 million deal to coach Alabama. The announcement came two weeks after he emphatically told South Florida reporters in a news conference that, "I'm not going to be the Alabama coach." It became as bold-faced a lie as any football coach has ever uttered with videotape rolling and pens poised to record his every word. It has since earned him the moniker in these parts as Nick Satan, liar and loser.

Among the most appalled was Don Shula, who's son Mike was fired as Alabama's head coach after the 2006 season, just a year after his 2005 team finished 10-2, followed by 6-6 in '06. Shula, a man who always did his best to take the high road and duck public controversy in 26 honorable seasons as the Dolphins Hall of Fame head coach, couldn't hide his utter contempt for Saban, willingly offering his opinion to every available camera in town.

He publicly called Saban a "quitter" and "a failure" and said, "my reaction is that Saban in two years was 15-17. I don't think that will be any great loss."

Ouch.

Still, you could certainly understand Shula's revulsion with the man who may well have been trying to replace his son at Alabama all along. And while Shula was a guy who almost always made himself available for comment as one of the game's more accessible head coaches, there's also no question Nick (The Not So Slick) Saban's media relations were mostly a disaster from Day One on the job.

Among his first imperious edicts was insisting that reporters covering his team be banned from the team's Davie, Fla., practice facility press room during the offseason. This made it easier for him to conduct business -- signing free agents, hiring assistants, preparing for the draft -- away from any prying media eyes. Never mind that no other team in the league had ever imposed such ridiculous restrictions on a media corps merely trying to keep readers and viewers, as in season ticket-holders, informed about the offseason workings of their favorite football team.

Saban, of course, was a graduate of the Bill Belichick School of non-journalism, having worked as a Belichick assistant with the Cleveland Browns. Belichick, known to many Browns executives back then as "The Mumbler," never was allowed to get away with such shenanigans by then-Browns owner Art Modell, a firm believer in a mostly open door media policy, if only because he knew the news of pro football could only be good for the business of pro football, as in ticket sales and TV ratings.

In recent years, Belichick also has refused to allow his assistant coaches to be interviewed, a nasty trend that's sadly alive and sick in other NFL outposts, usually where a former Belichick or Bill Parcells aide is the head coach (Eric Mangini of the Jets and Tom Coughlin of the Giants come immediately to mind).

Maybe when you win two (Parcells) or three (Belichick) Super Bowls, you can get away with that sort of egomaniacal policy. But Saban instituted the same rule in Miami from the get go, and he'd never won squadoosh at the professional level. In a perfect world, he'll also never get another chance to erase the label as just another big-time college coach who couldn't cut it at the highest level of the game.

What a difference a few decades make in the NFL. Back when Vince Lombardi was the head coach of the Washington Redskins in 1969, every day in training camp the legendary coach and his assistants hosted what was known as the "Five O'Clock Club." Reporters covering the team would gather over beers or cocktails with Lombardi and his staff to talk football, politics or anything else on anyone's mind. It was always off the record, but it certainly was beneficial for all concerned.