Nick Saban credits Alabama players for giving back to Nick's Kids Foundation

Retired legendary Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban recently held his Nick’s Kids Foundation Luncheon at the Crimson Tide Bryant-Denny stadium. During the event, members of the media were eager to ask the seven-time national championship-winning head coach about life since retiring.

During the course of his media address, Saban shared his thoughts on life after being a college head coach. But when praising his former players for giving back to the Nick’s Kids Foundation, he also touched on his feelings about the Crimson Tide program as a whole.

I appreciate the players,” said Saban. “The hardest thing about retiring was walking away from the players, the coaches, and the people in the organization that made the team what it was. I think there’s a mutual respect there, certainly from my standpoint for what they accomplished, what they’ve been able to do for this University of Alabama program. I’m glad that they are all here supporting Nick’s Kids. Hopefully, something that we did in the time that they were in the program is going to help them be successful as well.”

The Nick’s Kids Luncheon was held in the afternoon on August 14 in the North Zone of the Alabama stadium. Saban was able to raise over $600,000 in donations from the event. The former Crimson Tide head coach was grateful to see such a solid turnout for the event, which provides grants to 100 different philanthropic groups. But it also appears that Saban was more than thrilled to be reunited with several familiar faces from the Alabama football program and hopes that this interaction will help them be successful as they continue on their life’s journey.

Saban shares hopes for the story of his career

Saban decided to step away from coaching at the end of the 2023 season and enter his retirement as one of the greatest coaches of all time.

Now, as he shared while at the luncheon, his hopes for the story of his career come down to being remembered for helping players be more successful.

“I just hope that my story is about helping players be more successful,” Nick Saban said. “The importance of the lessons that can be learned in athletics for all competitors, whether it’s hard work, perseverance, overcoming adversity, pride in performance, being the best that you can be at whatever you choose to do, having the kind of discipline to make the kind of choices and decisions that allow you to do that.”

Nick Saban began his coaching career as a GA at Kent State, the same school he played his college football, back in 1973. Since then, he’s been a coach every season since then. For the most part, that’s been at the college level, though he has also made several NFL stops along the way.

“Those are the things that I hope we were able to impact the people that we were involved with so that they could be more successful by using some of those principles and values to be successful in whatever they choose to do,” Saban concluded.