Report: Alabama football to bring in Michael Phelps as guest speaker

Nick Saban is bringing in another high-profile athlete to address his team at Alabama. This time, it’s a decorated Olympian.

Michael Phelps will address the players and coaches after their preseason camp on Saturday, according to BamaOnLine’s Charlie Potter. Phelps certainly knows about winning, bringing home 23 gold medals during his legendary Olympic swimming career. On the hole, he totaled 28 Olympic medals overall to become the United States’ most decorated Olympian in history.

Saban has been known to bring star power to address his players over the years. Most recently, former NFL quarterback Alex Smith addressed the group last season after TNT’s Ernie Johnson and former Major League Baseball player Alex Rodriguez did the same. Now, he’s bringing in another proven winner as his Crimson Tide try to build off last season’s national championship run, which ended in a loss to Georgia.

Nick Saban defends comments made about 2021 being ‘rebuilding’ year

Saban previously stated that the 2021 Crimson Tide team was “rebuilding” even though quarterback Bryce Young won the Heisman Trophy — the first quarterback in Alabama history to do so. Alabama also won the SEC Championship and came up just short of a national championship.

With criticism of the comments coming from all corners of college football, Saban defended his comments, following up on the discussion when asked during a press conference Thursday afternoon.

“I don’t understand what’s so hard to understand,” Saban said. “We were young, and [this year], we should have nine starters back on offense and nine starters back on defense. That’s the point I was trying to make … So – as we usually have to do – we have lots of rebuilding to do again this season. That’s the point that I was trying to make.

“I don’t think our standard is like everybody else’s standard, but when you have a lot of young players playing, you’re actually trying to rebuild so those guys get the kind of experience you need so they can play at the level you need to play.”