Don’t Bet Against Nick Saban Ignoring COVID-19 To Coach Alabama Against Georgia

If you’ve been listening closely, Nick Saban keeps saying he’ll survive his positive test Wednesday for coronavirus to bark commands for his No. 2 Alabama football team facing No. 3 Georgia Saturday in Tuscaloosa at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

That’s right.

Somehow, after the opening kickoff for this nationally televised game between SEC powerhouses, Saban will coach the Crimson Tide, the sixth most valuable program in college football at $93 million, according to Forbes.

He could do the Zoom thing from his living room.

With his assistant coaches on the other end, he could use cell phones, walkie-talkies or carrier pigeons.

He even could (wait for it) take the sidelines as he has done as somebody’s head coach during most of the past 30 years, including 14 at Alabama.

S0 . . .

Have you been listening closely?

When somebody asked Saban Thursday on his weekly radio show if he should coach Alabama Saturday, you know, despite the SEC’s quarantine rule prohibiting such a thing, and despite the NCAA banning coaches from having voice communication during games that doesn’t go from the press box to the sidelines, here’s how he responded from his home office.

“Well, there are smarter people than me in positions to make those, sort of, determinations,” Saban said, before sounding as if he wanted those “smarter people” to hear his answer to this question: Should the NCAA use COVID-19 situations (oh, say, similar to the one involving an Alabama coach with six national championships and hoping for a seventh this season) as an excuse to suspend its rules for banning nearly all technology during games?

“I’m not being critical of anybody,” Saban said, “but I would hate not to be at the game on Saturday — if that’s what this turns out to be — and I would hate not to be, at least to have a headset, where I could communicate with the sidelines, even if you’re in the press box in isolation.

“Even if you couldn’t go into the locker room and communicate with the players, you could still Zoom with the players.

“So there’s ways to do this where you wouldn’t be putting anybody in harm’s way. But I also really believe in the safety of all the people, not just the players on our team, or the coaches. So there would have to be some logistical things that could be worked out for you could do something like that.”

Uh huh.

He’ll coach Saturday.

Yes, Saban is days from 69, a vulnerable age for those with the virus in their present or their past. Yes, his positive test happened after those of others such as Florida State coach Mike Norvell who had COVID-19 last month, and who was forced to follow the school’s 10-day isolation rule, and who missed the Seminoles’ nationally-televised game seven days later against Miami.

Norvell isn’t Saban, though.

The only person more powerful than Saban in college football is nobody. For verification, he’ll collect more than $9 million this season.

None of Saban’s peers makes more than that.

In fact, according to Forbes, only Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots ($12 million) and Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs ($11 million) surpass Saban’s yearly salary among college or pro coaches.

Then there is this: In 2016, when Saban had (ahem) only four national championships, he joined the likes of Germany’s Angela Merkel and Pope Francis on Fortune’s list of the World’s Greatest Leaders.

But back to Saban’s radio broadcast.

He declared he hasn’t suffered from the virus.

“I’m doing great,” he said. “I don’t have any symptoms. I don’t have a fever.”

Oh, and consider ESPN mentioned the SEC allows folks to resume their normal athletic lives after they have three successful negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and stay asymptomatic.

The University of Alabama has a policy against publicly releasing those results, which means we might not know if Saban has been cleared to coach the Tide Saturday under that scenario until as late as game time Saturday at 8 p.m.

Don’t be suprised if you see Saban out there.

Be surprised if he isn’t.