As Alabama Coach Nick Saban announced his retirement, the decision brought tributes and tears from Crimson Tide fans and admirers across the country, as well as respect and sighs of relief from rivals. It didn’t take long for sports pundits to speculate on his greatest win.
But Saban’s victory didn’t happen on a football field. It occurred when he took a very public video stand in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
On May 25, 2020 George Floyd was killed when he begged to breathe as a police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes. His alleged crime was being accused of possibly passing a counterfeit $20. The four officers have all been convicted and sentenced. And fact-checkers found numerous false statements that critics have issued about Floyd.
At this point, Nick Saban, Head Coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide, had amassed a number of wins, national championships (at Alabama and one at LSU), and coached numerous players who were successful in the National Football League. His place in the College Football Hall-of-Fame was already secure. He didn’t need to stick his neck out for a cause. But Saban did anyway in a high-profile video, released the following month.
As Sam Cooper wrote for Yahoo Sports, “The video includes several of Alabama’s star players and head coach Nick Saban with a script written by offensive tackle Alex Leatherwood. In the video, the players speak about honoring and acknowledging the past while striving to build “a better, more just future.”
“On the field we are relentless. We are strong. We are conquerors. But we are human beings first,” they say, according to Cooper. “In this moment in history, we can’t be silent. We must speak up for our brothers and sisters, for our sons and daughters. We speak for justice, for fairness, for equality, for a greater understanding. We stand together against racism, against brutality, against violence for a better world.” In the video, the players speak about listening “with an open heart and mind” to the perspective of others and understanding the pain they may experience before reaching a poignant crescendo, “All lives can’t matter until Black lives matter.”
Saban was attacked by politicians and sports media personalities for this bold stand, with criticism that was anything but polite, insulting him as a person, and not just his position.
But rather than shrink from the criticism, Saban doubled-down on his stand. He and his players led a Black Lives Matter march in August of 2020. According to Brooke Seipel with The Hill, Saban said of the rally, “This is something that the team decided to do together as a team, so I’m very proud and supportive of what they are trying to say and in a peaceful and intelligent way. I’m very pleased to be here today.”
“Sports has always created a platform for social change. For each of us involved in sports, I think we have a responsibility and obligation to do that in a responsible way and use our platform in a positive way to try to create social change in positive ways. The Crimson Tide football team and other campus athletes have been active in recent months in calling for reforms and demonstrating for Black Lives Matter following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black Americans at the hands of police.”
Saban had a lot of great wins in his collegiate coaching career. I hope this is counted as one that is the most memorable, when he went beyond the game to take a bold stand against injustice.
John A. Tures is Professor of Political Science and Coordinator of the Political Science Program at LaGrange College, in LaGrange, Georgia.