Is there more to the Nick Saban-Jimbo Fisher feud? Will NIL be what drives Nick Saban from college football?
These are just a couple of the questions that Paul Finebaum intends to answer in an upcoming, yet-to-be titled book on the subject.
The ESPN analyst is stepping away from the mic (figuratively, of course) and dusting off the writing utensils to collaborate with AL.com’s John Talty in an account of the rivalry between Alabama’s head football coach and two of his coaching proteges, Texas A&M’s Fisher and Georgia’s Kirby Smart, in the context of college football supremacy and with new rules that allow amateur athletes to be paid by businesses for use of their name, image and likeness.
It will be Finebaum’s first writing project since his New York Times best-selling 2014 book, “My Conference Can Beat Your Conference: Why the SEC Still Rules College Football.”
“It’s something I didn’t think I would ever do again,” Finebaum told AL.com. “The last writing I did was this last book that came out in 2014. When that ended, I said this was a great experience. I’ve had a wonderful career writing, but it’s certainly long in my past and rearview mirror.”
Penguin Press will publish the book, which is looking at a release date of Sept. 2023. David Vigliano of Vigliano Associates represented Finebaum on the book deal.
On May 18, Nick Saban shocked the college football world when he told Birmingham business leaders that Jimbo Fisher’s Texas A&M Aggies “bought every player” in their recruiting class.
“I remember talking to you the next morning and what Saban said alone was just massive,” he said of a radio interview on WNSP-FM 105.5 in Mobile. “What Saban said was the story of the year until it wasn’t. I remember saying to you that day, ‘I’ve never heard anything like this in my life and before you could get it out of your mouth, it was no longer relevant.”
That’s because later that day Fisher held a press conference — despite SEC commissioner Greg Sankey’s warning over “stepping over the line” — calling Saban a “narcissist” and suggesting reporters should dig into Saban’s past for potential wrongdoing.
Then, of course, there were emails from Texas A&M to Sankey suggesting a financial penalty and even suspending Saban for his comments.
“The one thing that intrigues me the most — and throughout this entire story, which isn’t very old — is what’s behind it all? What’s this really about? I think I said to you on the air that I don’t think we’ve heard the end of this. Of course, I had a little inside information when I said that, by the way. I think it is a great mystery. Not only the rivalry between Fisher and Nick Saban, but Kirby Smart and Nick Saban and really under the clouds of NIL. That’s driving everything.
“I think there’s a lot that has not been uncovered, and I feel very confident we are well under way of breaking this code in many different ways. There is a great appeal. I’ve looked at other things in the past but, to me, this is the most intriguing story that I’ve seen in many many years.
“Obviously, (Penguin Press) in New York feels the same way.”
Collaborating with Finebaum will be Talty, who just completed the book “The Leadership Secrets of Nick Saban: How Alabama’s Coach Became the Greatest Ever” expected out in August.
“After writing a comprehensive book that digs deep into how and why Nick Saban does things, I can think of no better way to apply that knowledge than in this book with Paul,” Talty said. “We know the key players, we know the key topics and, most importantly, we know the high stakes for everyone involved. This is the most revolutionary period in college athletics in a long time, and it warrants a thorough examination like the one we’ll produce.”
Among the topics to be explored is the dynamic between Fisher and Saban but also Saban and Smart.
Finebaum said what transpired between Saban and Smart leading up to the championship game was “genuine,” but he thinks “the relationship with Saban is completely different, though.” He contends Saban views Smart completely different than Fisher.
“I think they are both complicated relationships,” Finebaum said. “To me, the scope of all of this is Shakespearian. You have Saban and his two prime courtiers. One is, at least publicly, playing the game of worship and deference in spite of winning a championship against him. The other has simply broken the cord and has gone scorched Earth. To me, it is a fascinating dichotomy between Saban and these two individuals. I think it screams for more. It has Hollywood mini-series written all over it.
“Watching this unfold was interesting, but the 12 hours between what happened in Birmingham on that Wednesday night and what happened in College Station that Thursday morning sent this from a good story to something that was really Shakespearian and Greek mythology all in one.”
Hollywood has taken notice, one industry insider tells AL.com. The industry is eating up sports content right now. “The Last Dance,” the ESPN documentary on the Chicago Bulls, was a resounding success. “Winning Time,” the HBO series about the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers, was met with much fanfare. The recent release of “Hustle,” the fictional Netflix movie, starring Adam Sandler as an NBA scout was released as Disney Plus ushers in “Rise,” a movie is based on the true story of the Antetokounmpo brothers — Giannis Antetokounmpo, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, and Kostas Antetokounmpo — three Nigerian-Greek brothers who emigrated from Nigeria to Greece, and rose to fame in the NBA.
“I don’t have any doubt the entertainment industry will have an interest in this,” Finebaum said. “Because no one knows about this yet, we haven’t been down that road yet. I’ve heard through some friends of mine in the industry, that Hollywood would look at this very seriously.
“I think it is a made-for-Hollywood story. It’s an incredibly compelling story, involving the greatest college football coach of all time at a critical moment in his career and the two disciples that are challenging him for supremacy.”
Finebaum is as intrigued as anyone, he said. Because, like us, he doesn’t know how it ends.
“The fascinating part is that this isn’t happening in the middle of his career where he is being challenged by two proteges at a point in his career that he has a lot of runway,” he explained. “(Saban is) 70 years old. No one knows where the end comes, how it comes, and I think that just adds to the drama here. It adds to what’s going beneath this and what’s really going on. That’s how we set out on this project. These aren’t easy things to do, but I feel very confident we’ll get to the finish line. I think it’s pretty obvious they do, too.”
The host of the Paul Finebaum Show says NIL will be a big part of the story. He admitted to talking to Saban off the record about NIL, only to say, he “was not at all surprised by what Saban said publicly.”
Saban has managed to adapt and overcome changes in college football: The bump rule and hurry-up, up-tempo offenses to name just a couple. But, Finebaum contends, this is different.
“I want to dig into NIL as well,” he said. “How did we get here? What is really going on? How is it going to affect the future of college football? As many of other have said, it is an existential threat to the game, and I don’t think it affects anyone more than Nick Saban. We intend to reveal in this project how it is affecting him and what his future looks like with it.
“You can easily say and predict this is the greatest challenge to the longevity of his career. For all those who insist, he’ll be there five or 10 more years, I direct them to listen to Nick Saban publicly on NIL. It would be difficult to do, but we intend to do it, but share his views privately.
“I think we all saw on Wednesday night on May 18 how deeply concerned he is because in all my experience with Nick Saban, I’ve never heard him talk like he did that night.
“We got a glimpse into his mindset.”
The book will cover more than just what Saban, Smart and Fisher have said. While he hopes to sit down with the three of them, there will be more.
“(SEC commissioner) Greg Sankey is a key player in this project,” he said. “I want to know more about what happened on May 19 between Greg Sankey and Jimbo Fisher. No question, he is a big player in this project.
“The main goal is to get the truth, unvarnished and as accurate displayed as we can through individuals speaking on the record or through sources. That’s all you can hope to do. The goal is to get beneath the surface and go where you can’t go in a 3-hour radio show or a 750-word column.”
Mark Heim is a sports reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim.
