Nick Saban kicked off his ninth season as Alabama's head coach with a 35-17 win over Wisconsin on Saturday, but Saban says he might still be coaching in the NFL today if a key personnel decision had been handled differently when he was with the Miami Dolphins in 2006.
"If we'd have had Drew Brees, you know, I might still be in Miami," Saban told ESPN.
Saban, of course, did leave the Dolphins for Alabama after the '06 season, even after saying he wouldn't take the Alabama job, and took plenty of heat for the move.
How could things have been different?
Well, Saban is reiterating that he wanted to sign Brees, a free agent at the time, before the '06 season but that the organization decided to pass on Brees after doctors checked out his injured shoulder. The Dolphins signed another quarterback coming off of an injury, Daunte Culpepper, instead. Culpepper went on to play in just four games for Miami in '06 and was released after the season. Brees, of course, became an All-Pro and the MVP of Super Bowl XLIV with the New Orleans Saints.
Saban spoke on the topic in a recent interview with Campus Insiders, as well.
"I never really commented a lot about this before, but the Drew Brees scenario really soured me a little bit because, we really wanted to get him. We had him," Saban said. "Circumstances, (the) physical, didn't allow us to have him on our team and then he went on to have tremendous success. We didn't have a quarterback that year, so we didn't have success. That really, sort of, rubbed me the wrong way and I just felt like I could control my destiny better at Alabama."
There you have it. Saban is sticking to his story -- he had similar things to say about the Brees decision a few years ago. Things have worked out well for both men. The Dolphins, on the other hand, have made the playoffs only once (2008) in the past 13 seasons.
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