Credit: Mark Bradley
Credit: Mark Bradley
New Orleans -- One of the reasons Nick Saban has time to be the best in the business at coaching and recruiting and scowling and recruiting and motivating -- and did we mention recruiting? -- is that he wastes nary a moment deciding what to have for lunch. He eats at his desk and has the same thing every day: A salad with chicken strips and cherries.
Another way the emperor of Alabama conserves precious seconds: He doesn't do email, ever.
Speaking at Bama's hour-long media day session in advance of Thursday's Sugar Bowl, Saban confessed that he doesn't deal in emails or text messages or Google searches. "We didn't have all that stuff when I was growing up," he said.
Then, nodding toward contemporary student-athletes: "A lot of our players can't function unless they're in constant communication with a lot of people. I see value in communication, but not just sending something somebody can read. That's not a personal touch."
(As we know, the Great Saban is all about personal warmth. But we digress. Back to his take on modernity.)
"Terry (his wife, know universally as Miss Terry) and I go away for a weekend, and we come back and she has 387 emails. She spends the next day answering 387 emails. I spend the next day doing something productive."
Then this: "I never get any emails. If you don't send any, you don't get any."
Here he broke done and made a concession. "I do get text messages, and I do read them. I just don't know how to send them back."
Nick Saban, for the record, is 63. He'll turn 64 on Halloween. Feel free to text "Happy B'day" and attach a smiley emoticon. But forget about that e-card.
