Paul Finebaum, Stephen A. Smith recall when Nick Saban 'raged about NIL' to them

We may never know the true motivations for Nick Saban’s sudden retirement, but on Thursday, Stephen A. Smith and Paul Finebaum explained why his NIL frustrations may have played a big role in the decision.

When appearing First Take together the morning after Saban’s retirement, Finebaum remembered a situation two offseasons ago where the Alabama coach consulted he and Smith on the current NIL landscape. Here was Finebaum’s recollection of that conversation:

“Stephen A., you know almost better than anybody, how much he hated NIL. I’ll tell you a quick story. He called me about a year and a half ago and just raged about NIL. And I, frankly, didn’t agree with him. He hung up the phone and he called Stephen A. Smith.

“I had a friend that was in his office the next day, and he said, ‘you know, Finebaum didn’t agree with me, but Stephen A. Smith does.’ And the next week, he went public with the Jimbo Fisher situation and everyone knows what happened after that.”

Of course, Paul Finebaum is referencing Saban’s comments in the summer of ’22 when he claimed that Fisher and Texas A&M had “bought every player on their team” in a rant against the new reality of college football in the NIL age.

“You are absolutely right,” Stephen A. Smith responded after Finebaum’s story, then detailed his own conversation with Saban on NIL.

“The NIL, it was grating his nerves. I had a conversation and he was on fire about it, you’re absolutely right. And his whole thing was — it wasn’t necessarily about the NIL itself, Paul, it was about the agents and how the agents were utilizing it. He used words like ’embezzlement,’ he used words like “hostage.’

“He used these words to describe the climate that NIL had created, not because of the kids, because he wanted the kids to get paid, but the adults in the room, reportedly there on behalf of the kids, and what they had turned it into. It was the one thing that grated his nerves. It wasn’t the transfer portal, it was NIL, that drove him nuts.”

After that story from Smith, Paul Finebaum revealed that there was one particular player and instance that really bothered Saban when it came to NIL and recruiting.

“And Stephen A., there’s a point of reference with that phone call he made to you that day and why he went public,” Finebaum explained, breaking down the very specific situation that pushed Saban over the hedge with his NIL frustration.

“Some of his issues were about a single player. At the end of the 2022 season, Alabama missed the playoff because they lost a game on the final play against Tennessee, remember that field goal, and they lost in overtime on a two-point conversion to LSU.

“There was a wide receiver, he was the best wide receiver in the country, and he went somewhere else and he could have gone to Alabama, but Saban would not pay this young man because he said ‘If I do that’ — we’re talking millions of dollars — ‘then how am I gonna coach him and how am I going to be able to look myself in the mirror?’

“He let him go, he was angry about the situation. Had he got that guy, and he could have easily gotten him within whatever rules there are in college football nowadays, he would have probably won the national championship last year.

“And those kind of episodes really grated on him to have to go out there and literally pay millions of dollars for someone and then try to coach that person.”

Lastly, Smith added:

“When he called Paul and then he called me, he was venting, but it wasn’t until after the call he decided to go public. Because he was going back and forth.”

Ultimately, Nick Saban chose violence at the podium against Texas A&M and their use of NIL to acquire their No. 1 recruiting class for that season. That was just one sign of his aversion to the nature of NIL and how it’s been adapted into college football.