Sports Illustrated has a list entitled “The Most Disliked People in Sports,” which very accurately lists Los Angeles Clippers owner as No. 1 and then snowballs into an avalanche of typical A-holishness from there. While some of the people are debatable (I, for one, like Richard Sherman), most are established athletes, coaches and officials who have well-documented histories of being big ol’ D-bags, like Alex Rodriguez and Michael Vick. The University of Alabama’s football program grabbed two spots on this list, with iconic fail-upward example and Crimson Tide offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin coming in at No. 8 (ahead of Dan Snyder and Gary Bettman, which is truly impressive) and Tide coach Nick Saban ranking No. 22, right behind psychology teacher Marshall Henderson.
Internet lists are like hot girlfriends in that we all make them up, but this one was still important enough in a boring Alabama offseason for someone to actually ask Saban about it, and as he almost always is, Saban was indifferent and didn’t really give a crap.
“I didn’t even know it, so I guess it doesn’t really bother me,” Saban said.
He didn’t stop there.
“Look, I try to do things the right way,” he continued. “I have a lot of compassion for people. We do a lot to help other people. We try to provide leadership to help young people have a better chance to be more successful in life. We do a lot for young kids. So, all’s we can do is what we can control. What we can control is to try to do things the right way, help other people, have compassion, be a good leader, set a good example, care for other people, which we do, and I feel good about who we are and what we do and how we try to help others.
“If somebody else doesn’t feel that way, I guess they’re entitled to their opinion.” (Via AL.com)
That’s some stellar table-turning right there. Besides, if you’ve got something bad to say about Saban, you’re probably going to have to answer to his daughter, who would probably rank No. 1 on the list of Sports Daughters Who Scare the Living Hell Out of Us.
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