Saban ... ESPN Documentary thread

[Gerry Hamilton]

This is going to be great!

[watty7796]

Its gotta be better than the NE to NC debacle.  Went from arguably first to maybe the worst hc fall from grace i can ever remember in the coaching ranks.  This is Jamarcus Russel #1 draft pick bad.

[Oldest Horn]

I tend to be skeptical of documentaries where the subject has final editing rights, but the first episode was good. 

[AustinsTruth]

Documentary was done very poorly. Bad storytelling by the producers. It will be successful of course (anything about Nick Saban would be), but left a ton to be desired. 

[Gerry Hamilton]

2 hours ago, Oldest Horn said:

I tend to be skeptical of documentaries where the subject has final editing rights, but the first episode was good. 

Agree 100%.

Thought is was very good 

[LonghornFan4Ever]

 

[Jester101]

Two thirds the way through it. Saban’s wife certainly kept him grounded.

[closetojumping]

Did they dedicate an episode to explaining how Saban fully weaponized the player auction landscape and led Alabama to being one of the major buyers in what was basically an annual illegal auction? Or is that just never going to be critically looked into by anyone? 

Alabama was a lead dog in a closed market of about 10 schools every year who worked with street agents and the proverbial uncles to buy players in recruiting when it was fundamentally illegal. 

Give Saban credit though, once he realized that legally being able to pay players removed his competitive advantage, he was smart enough to deuce out and take the massive ESPN bag and retire. 

7 titles, yadda yadda. This dude was the Sammy Sosa of CFB coaching. Could he have been great without cheating? We’ll never know. He wasn’t at Michigan State and he damned sure wasn’t with the Dolphins. 

[mmdaytontexas]

9 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Did they dedicate an episode to explaining how Saban fully weaponized the player auction landscape and led Alabama to being one of the major buyers in what was basically an annual illegal auction? Or is that just never going to be critically looked into by anyone? 

Alabama was a lead dog in a closed market of about 10 schools every year who worked with street agents and the proverbial uncles to buy players in recruiting when it was fundamentally illegal. 

Give Saban credit though, once he realized that legally being able to pay players removed his competitive advantage, he was smart enough to deuce out and take the massive ESPN bag and retire. 

7 titles, yadda yadda. This dude was the Sammy Sosa of CFB coaching. Could he have been great without cheating? We’ll never know. He wasn’t at Michigan State and he damned sure wasn’t with the Dolphins. 

Every top coach pulling in multiple five stars is accused of cheating at some point in their career. Maybe Bama's rich alumni negotiated behind the scenes with these recruits and he looked the other way, but a lot of his former coaches were out there in the college ranks recruiting against him, and they never accused him of cheating. They could have easily blown the whistle on the cheating, but they never said a word. 

[closetojumping]

8 minutes ago, mmdaytontexas said:

Every top coach pulling in multiple five stars is accused of cheating at some point in their career. Maybe Bama's rich alumni negotiated behind the scenes with these recruits and he looked the other way, but a lot of his former coaches were out there in the college ranks recruiting against him, and they never accused him of cheating. They could have easily blown the whistle on the cheating, but they never said a word. 

Oh man. I wasn’t projecting. I’m not here to convince you of anything, so believe what you want.

That said any premise around “everyone does it” or “everyone was clean or other people would have said something “ are each so completely wrongheaded that they’re almost impossible to help someone who believes either idea to become disavowed of their illusions.