He abruptly left Miami 15 years ago this week, quitting on the Dolphins after only two seasons. He lied about leaving, and South Florida hated him for that. Many among us still do. Some always will.
But 15 years later we understand very well it wasn’t the lying we hated, after all.
It was the leaving.
It was all Nick Saban took from us that we have spent every day since trying, and failing, to recover.
The relentless winning, the championships, the national stature — everything he created at Alabama could have belonged to the Dolphins and South Florida. Then-owner Wayne Huizenga was convinced of it when he hired Saban and convinced of it ‘til the day he died.
When Saban packed for Tuscaloosa, he took what might have been with him.
He took hope, and possibility.
“Nick would have been great for us had he stayed,” Huizenga told me soon after they parted, on very good terms, by the way. “Great. Shula great.”
Huizenga believed this coach would have done in the NFL what he is doing in the Southeastern Conference, aiming for his seventh national championship with the Crimson Tide on January 10.
He believed Saban, now 70, would have been to Miami what Bill Belichick has been to New England.
An historic, generational difference-maker.
We will never know. Little has the power to haunt like those three words.
Saban infamously said on December 21, 2006, “I guess have I have to say it. I’m not going to be the Alabama coach.” Then 13 days later, he was introduced as Alabama’s new coach.
He has expressed sorrow ever since for the way his Dolphins departure was handled. He has called it his biggest regret. “We all make mistakes,” he has said of it.
It was comical, though, looking back, how Dolphins fans and Your Friend The Media latched with such venom onto the idea that Saban had ”lied.” Bulletin: Coaches lie, fib, obfuscate and otherwise massage truth to suit their needs. Coaches (humans in general) also sometimes change their minds. Say one thing, do another.
Not only that, Saban’s career choice was hardly a mistake. Clearly it was the best decision of his life, one still reaping rewards 15 years later. It hurt the Dolphins, no doubt, and that pain is still echoing, rippling. But for his life, it was a Powerball ticket cashed.
In Miami we obsess about Saban leaving, 15 years later, not because we know how it changed history — we can’t know — but because we can’t help but imagine how it might have.
Saban’s two seasons spent here in 2005-06 saw a combined record was 15-17. The most remarkable thing about that time was that he was forced to follow bad medical advice from team doctors and sign Daunte Culpepper instead of Drew Brees —- which he later said made him receptive to leaving a year later.
Imagine how Dolphins history might have changed had Miami moved forward with Brees and Saban.
Imagine it at your own risk of self-torture.
Saban of course had earlier been a Cleveland Browns assistant under Belichick from 1991 to 1994, calling those the worst four years of his life.
Maybe he simply wasn’t cut out for NFL success.
(But what if he was?)
(What if he had stayed?)
Miami went 1-15 the season after he left. The curse was on.
Miami has made only two playoffs and won zero postseason games since. The curse continues.
Miami and Saban are forever linked.
Alabama lured him from the Dolphins because it had just fired the son of Don Shula.
The Miami Hurricanes’ new coach, Mario Cristobal, is a Saban protege who was a prominent Alabama assistant of his from 2013 to 2016.
The Dolphins’ future, at least for now, is in the hands of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who starred for Saban at Bama.
Saban has twice returned to the backyard he forsook, winning the Orange Bowl game in 2018 and winning his most recent College Football Playoff national championship one January ago at Hard Rock Stadium.
How can Miami forget Saban? He’s always around.
The forever reminder of what might have been.
