Nick Saban once said, and it wasn’t that long ago, that he would not be the Alabama coach. Today, he is, and there is much hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth about him having no dignity, being a liar, and a terrible terrible human being. I don’t see it that way. I think if a coach is interested in a job other than the one he currently holds, he absolutely should lie about it. It doesn’t make any sense not to.
Says Pat Forde in the article linked above:
…this would be my suggested sample comment for a coach being sought for a job other than the one he now has:
“Although I love the position I currently hold, I am a candidate for job X. I will not discuss it further until there is something tangible, be it an interview or an offer, to discuss. Goodbye.”
Well, that sounds nice. But ask Jim Mora how good of an idea it is to talk about one job while you have another. How’d that work out for him? And he was even joking about it. But Arthur Blank, the owner of his club heard it, felt like Mora embarrassed the organization, disrespected the position he’d been given with the Falcons, and Mora was gone.
And you know what? I don’t blame Blank, either. Coaches get a lot of money to represent teams or institutions … and you expect them to say publicly that there’s another job they like better? And you expect their employers to be OK with that?
Say that a fictional Coach Wang is the coach at Ball State. And he says that he’d be interested in the position at Johnson University. But the negotiations with Johnson don’t work out, and now he’s left at Ball State, where the perception will be that he hates the job, wants out, feels like he’s above it, and he’s just screwed.
If you say, “No, I’m not interested,” and the job doesn’t pan out, then hey, you said all along you weren’t interested. If it works out that you do get the job, well, then, you just have to be branded a liar. But everyone else in the coaching profession is going to understand, and hopefully, you can dry your eyes on your fat new paychecks.
So you lie about it. You fake your loyalty, and you look out for yourself … much like everyone else in corporate America. Teams certainly don’t show much loyalty for coaches when they aren’t winning. Coaches need not show any loyalty to teams when they are.
jackie
What Forde proposed is light years different from what Mora said. Mora did not simply “talk about one job while [he had] another.”
C’mon now.
January 4, 2007 at 8:28 am
Mark
Nice Ball State analogy. It was a matter of time before that happened.
In reality, what you say in this post makes sense. Who has not lied in a job interview or lied to their boss to score another job interview? It happens every day to even the most ordinary person.
However, the media’s job, as it sees it and has seen it for many years now, is to heighten America’s sense of outrage. Why is Nick Saban jumping from job to job such a big deal? Because the media wants to decry the fact that “no one has any loyalty anymore,” and “lying is inherently bad and hurtful.” Cue our sense of outrage, marked by countless descriptions about Saban “massaging his ego.”
In theory, what Nick Saban did was dishonest and disloyal. In theory, we should be mad about this and decry the constant lack of loyalty and honesty in both the business and sports world. In reality, there’s not much you can do about any of these things except to try to be a loyal and honest person yourself, but you’ll probably end up being forced into dishonesty and disloyalty at some point.
My advice? Take the media reports about Saban, shrug your shoulders, and go out and get promoted before someone else beats you to it.
January 4, 2007 at 8:49 am
Mr. Bojangles
One big difference between this guy and the standard – he’s a head coach and a public figure. His credibility is key for recruitment and retaining his players’ loyalty, and you know the competition in the SEC will be first to point that out to the next recruiting class. I’d have a real hard time believing Saban if he came a’calling, knowing not only that he cut’n'run not once, but twice for greener pastures, and straight-up lied about it to the media and staff til the day it happened.
As for covering his ass – glad to see he’s used to it. He’ll fit in perfectly in Alabama’s ‘coaching by committee’ project. (You know, til he loses a few games, anyway). Best of luck to him.
January 4, 2007 at 11:06 am
SK
I think Miami fans are more pissed at Nick Saban for botching the QB situation, failing to improve the team’s talent base, leaving the team worse off than when he got there and generally being a micro-managing, thin-skinned asshole, all for a tidy $9 million or so. Lying about the Alabama job just added insult to injury.
And the ideal coach for Ball State would be Houston Nutt, but you knew that.
January 4, 2007 at 11:45 am
BA
I think these liar calls are just a different way for Miami fans to vent over Saban’s departure. Which when you think about it isn’t that bad for him.
He seems to me like a guy with some foresight. Look Saban realized he was f’ed with a medicore team in Miami. He created the team and next year was going to be held responsible when they go 6-10 again. So he just left a year before he would’ve been fired. Really he only tarnished his name with the “liar” tag not the “another college coach fails in the pros” tag which when you think about it isn’t that bad.
January 4, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Charles
By this rational, you should never be upset with NFL players, like T.O., who hold-out or bail on teams for more money. I mean they’re just looking out for number one like the coaches, and the team doesn’t show them any loyalty if they don’t perform or someone younger, cheaper comes along to take their place. Am I sensing a double standard?
January 4, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Shmooth
It’s not that Saban lied. It’s how bad and emphatic he was about it. It’s that he’s still sitting in press conferences lying today. Coaches have denied interest in other jobs before but never so vehemently and blatanly false as Saban on this one. He could have just said “All I’m concerned with is the Miami Dolphins” or “We’re just focused on (next opponent here) for Sunday”. Instead he outright denied any interest or contact with the job, berated reporters for even suggesting there was a possiblity and categorically denied all interest. Meanwhile he’s had his agent out for months looking into it for him. Now he’s sitting in his press conference acting as if he was forthright the whole time and just heard or thought about for the first time Monday.
As for Mora, he didn’t even comment on a job. He was openly pining for a job that’s not even available at the moment. Said he’d leave his current team in the lurch in an instance if the other job was available. That’s bad, that’s real bad. He claims to have been joking but I’ve heard eulogies with more comedic inflection.
January 4, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Chucktastic
I completely agree, mjd. If someone offered more money, I would switch jobs every week. Mostly because I know that if I don’t hit my numbers, my boss will fire me.
As for Saban’s credibility with recruits, that comes with the territory. Either you’re successful and you will have to deflect job change rumors every year, or you’re not successful and you will have to deflect rumors of your demise every year. There is no real credibility in any aspect of athletics, professional or college.
January 4, 2007 at 11:42 pm
the mighty mjd
Charles – It would be a double standard, if you could find any instance of me saying that a player was wrong for holding out for more money. Go ahead. Look. I’ll wait.
January 5, 2007 at 3:20 am
greg
Speaking of coaches lying, what do you think of Don Shula’s vitriol on the Saban departure? Although I was a mere lad of 13 at the time, I remember some controversy concerning The Don’s departure from The Baltimore Colts following the 1969 season.
Wikipedia filled in the blank spaces of my memory: “After the 1969 season, Joe Robbie, owner of the Miami Dolphins, signed Shula to a contract to become the second head coach in Miami. Subsequently, the team was charged with tampering, which forced the Dolphins to give their first round pick to the Colts ”
Oh, that’s right, its coming back to me now: DON SHULA WAS UNDER CONTRACT TO THE COLTS WHEN HE MADE HIS DEAL WITH THE DOLPHINS!!!! And this “NFL Icon” has the unmitigated gall to look askance at Nick saban’s behavior?!?!? Mr. Pot……meet Mr. Kettle! A pox on both your houses!
January 6, 2007 at 12:07 am
Father Figure
Amen, MJD. People should never try to act in accordance with principles, or elevate their behavior in any way not necessitated by the market. Why should Nick Saban, or anyone else for that matter, ever tell the truth if not forced to? Why not lie in Court? Who cares, right? “If the witness didn’t lie, he would have been exposed to serious liability!” BTW, I’ll be sure to note that anybody who endorses public confabulation can NEVER claim that poor people deserve their plight because they don’t have “discipline,” or “positive behavior traits,” or right wing garbage like that. No, you relegate yourself to accepting that fact that the wealthy are generally terrible people.
Don’t the ABA model rules of professional conduct say something about these types of statements? But, I guess we shouldn’t hold our noble millionaires to the standards set for lawyers.
January 8, 2007 at 12:47 am
the mighty mjd
You’re right, a head coach lying about his interest and another job is probably exactly the same thing as someone lying in court. Outstanding comparison.
January 8, 2007 at 2:08 am
*whatever*
First of all, I don’t think I’ll change anyone’s mind, but I still feel compelled to make this point.
Nick Saban tried and tried and tried to do what everyone wanted. He tried to say no comment, he tried to defer away from the subject, he tried to say the right things, but no one would let him. It’s easy for us to say, “just say you are interested” but the man HAD A JOB TO DO. Why is that so hard to understand? His season was not over, how was he supposed to tell athletes to give every effort on the field when all of them would most likely just go through the motions knowing he was out of there? The man had a job to do, and that job included not being a distraction for his team.
But as every day passed by, the question went from being 1 out of 10 questions to every other question. Trying to box him in, goad him into to something. “No comment” or “I’m not going to discuss that” or “my intention is to be the coach here” (all things said by every coach on earth since the invention of the reporter) was NEVER good enough.
EVERY SINGLE DAY, question after question, never about the Dolphins, always about the job. Always trying desperately to avoid the issue, trying desperately to walk the fine line of not lying, not being a distraction, not losing the confidence of the current team THAT HE HAD A JOB TO FINISH WITH.
But no, they hounded him until he finally said those faithful words. But the funny thing about those faithful words that every media outlet has beaten into the public psyche, is that they are incomplete. The funny thing is, no one played the ENTIRE clip, no one provided a transcript of the ENTIRE exchange, because that would tell a story they didn’t want.
If you hear the entire line of questioning, he had been badgered about the issue once again for the millionth time. He did his best to side step the issue when the reporter said, “Well then why don’t you just say it? Say you are not going to coach Alabama.” THEN HE SAID, “OK, I guess I have to say it, I’m not going to be the Alabama coach.”
That’s why they don’t play the whole thing. An exasperated, weary head coach, trying desperately to DO HIS JOB, can’t because he’s not allowed. He was boxed into a corner and that was exactly what the reporter wanted.
Now take you own life into consideration. Have you, every time you’ve looked for a better job, told your employer that you went to an interview? What if your employer had you followed every day and had people ask you every day if you were taking a new job? Would you say yes? HELL NO YOU WOULDN’T, because you wouldn’t want your current job to be in jeopardy if the other one didn’t work out. You wouldn’t want your boss to start looking for your replacement, you wouldn’t want your livelihood to be taken away, you wouldn’t want your family to suffer. You wouldn’t put your two week notice in until THE DEAL WAS DONE, not until the offer was final, you would not. And if your boss said to you directly, “Tell me you will not take another job, just say it!” Without knowing the other job was a done deal, you would skirt the issue or you would lie; you know you would. There might be a few boy scouts among you who will say, “no, I wouldn’t” but then again, you’ve NEVER been in that situation before, so it’s real easy to say without your career and family on the line.
Don’t hate Nick Saban because you don’t know the whole situation. Don’t hate him because he was boxed into a corner that YOU WILL NEVER have to deal with in your entire life. And don’t hold Nick Saban to some standard you would NEVER hold yourself to.
The man did what he had to do: Finish the season, make sure the job was what he wanted and take care of his life and family. All things any of us would have done with our own lives. Except all of us don’t have 30 reporters trying to win a Pulitzer by scooping our next move.
January 9, 2007 at 11:06 pm