Nick Saban cracks up at Channing Crowder retelling of bathroom ripping from Saban

Nick Saban was known for his laser-like focus as a coach, rarely ever allowing his mind to diverge far from the game of football — especially when he was at work.

Channing Crowder was introduced to this fact about his former head coach during an interesting interaction inside the Miami Dolphins team bathroom in the mid-2000s.

Crowder, who was in his first two seasons in the NFL when Saban coached the Dolphins from 2005-06, reminded the now-retired former collegiate head coach about this seminal experience during the latest episode of The Pivot Podcast with himself and fellow former NFL players Ryan Clark and Fred Taylor.

“I went to the sink and started washing my hands, I looked over and I knew I had to say something, you’re the head coach of the Dolphins, you’re Nick damn Saban,” Crowder recalled this week. “And my first thought from all the meetings where you’d talk about Miss Terry, you’d talk about your wife and she brought cookies to the team. And, Coach, I looked over, and this is about 10 games into the season, and I think there was a Buffalo running back that I ended up giving up a third-down catch to the running back on an option route.

“This is Wednesday at practice, and I’m washing my hands and look over and say: ‘Hey Coach, how’s Miss Terry?’ And you looked at me, ‘She’d be a lot better if you could cover a f***ing ‘back on third down.’”

🎥 Channing Crowder tells a story of an encounter between him and Nick Saban in the bathroom after asking Saban about his wife after Crowder gave up a 3rd down catch vs. Buffalo Bills

"She'll be a lot better if could cover a f—–g back on 3rd down." 😂 (@thepivot) #GoFins pic.twitter.com/QERjg3SbPR

— FinsXtra (@FinsXtra) January 22, 2025

Without missing a beat, Saban confirmed that sounded like something he would’ve said.

“That’s right, she would’ve been,” a smiling Saban responded admist uproarious laughter. “She wanted to win.”

For a young NFL player simply trying to make small talk with his head coach, it was quite the learning experience, and gave Crowder incomparable insight into Saban’s infamous acerbic sense of humor.

“It always blows my mind,” Crowder added. “When you saw me three days (after the game), you thought about me giving up that third-and-7 when I asked you ‘how’s Miss Terry?’”

Saban: “Well you gotta get off the field on third down.”

Clark, who played for Saban over his final two seasons (2000-01) at LSU, reinforced the point with another Saban-ism: “You can’t win if you don’t.”

It was clearly a lesson Crowder never forgot, regardless of where it took place.

Nick Saban: Miami Dolphins tenure was most important moment in career

Over the course of his legendary coaching career, Nick Saban has seen it all, but his most important moment, according to the seven-time national champion himself, might surprise the masses.

During an appearance on the latest episode of The Pivot Podcast, Saban answered some fascinating questions regarding decisions that have shaped his career and his life as a whole. Evidently, Saban views his two seasons in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins as more pivotal than anything else, because it re-shaped his world-view.

“From a coaching standpoint, probably, for me, was leaving LSU, going to Miami, finding out that about myself, because I always thought that being a head coach in the NFL was the ultimate goal that I had,” Saban stated, regarding the biggest turning point in his life and more specifically his coaching career. “That was it. That’s what I wanted to do,. When I did it, and because we couldn’t control the variables — you’ve got a salary cap. We’re $17 million over. We’ve got the oldest team in the league. You’ve got no draft picks, because you gave them all away for Ricky Williams. So, it’s like, how are you going to build this team? You’ve got no quarterback. But it was a challenge, and we made it better, but again, I felt like we couldn’t control the variables.

“So, I went back to college. From a professional standpoint, that was probably the biggest turning point, for me. And then I was satisfied, to be at a place for 17 years. Which, I was never satisfied before, because it was always, ‘Climb the ladder,’ and I was satisfied to be at that place. That was really good, and different in a way, and then financially, getting in business, having the Mercedes dealerships and all that.”

Steve Samra contributed to this report.