An awful lot of talent walked out the door this week. It is exactly 1,222 miles from Gillette Stadium to the football offices at the University of Alabama, but for so much of the past 17 years it’s as if the two main occupants were sitting just across the hallway from each other, two titans of the football industry sharing the same building, the same floor, the same suite.
It goes beyond the fact that Bill Belichick and Nick Saban have been friends for years, football savants bonded by a shared history of being sons of coaching fathers, of being able but unremarkable college players, and of being relentlessly and unapologetically excellent at the job of coaching football teams and winning championships, in multiples.
There was always something almost mystical about the dual paths the two men took. Neither much cared even a little bit about how they were perceived, and that plus the fact that their teams mostly steamrolled everything in their path led to them being universally detested by most precincts outside Greater New England and Greater Tuscaloosa.
After a while, if you didn’t root for the Patriots, if you didn’t root for the Crimson Tide, you didn’t just revel when those teams lost, you rejoiced in how miserable those defeats were going to make Belichick and Saban as they retreated to their football laboratories to try to rectify whatever had befallen their teams.
They both left hard feelings in their path. For Belichick, it started with the unceremonious benching of Bernie Kosar early in his tenure in Cleveland and, of course, reached unparalleled heights when he accepted then bailed on the Jets in the same day in 2000.
Saban? He left the Dolphins for Alabama after repeatedly dismissing rumors of it. But if you really want to see loathing, find an LSU fan (I was lucky enough to marry into that ardent group) and ask how they feel about Saban doing what he did at Alabama after bringing LSU back to prominence after 40 years in the wilderness, and having to watch, up close, Saban these past 17 years not only in the same conferences but the same division, the SEC West.
Again, didn’t bother either of them a bit.
You may have publicly detested them. But, man, over the better part of two decades you privately had to concede: You’d have given your left arm a lot of times to have them coach whichever team you happened to care about. Belichick was 266-121 for the Patriots beginning in 2000 (with 11 of those losses coming his first year), and he won six Super Bowls, finished runner-up three other times. Saban was even better: 206-29 (seven of those losses in 2007, his first year), seven national championships, four other trips to the football playoff final four.
They both inherited very little when they arrived. The Patriots had been to (and lost) two Super Bowls in their history before Belichick showed up, but theirs was a mostly forgettable and nondescript history before he came aboard. Belichick altered that forever.
And though Alabama had been the college gold standard for many years under the stewardship of Bear Bryant, by the time Saban showed up, it had fallen into disrepair — either scandal or mediocrity handed down from Gene Stallings to Mike DuBose to Dennis Franchione to Mike Price to Mike Shula. Saban altered that, forever.
And because they were both empowered with absolute control, they could boldly make decisions that might petrify lesser men. Belichick was roasted for the Kosar benching, but Vinny Testaverde blossomed under him, led the old incarnation of the Browns to their last playoff bid in 1994. He was the one who stuck with Tom Brady in 2001 even after Drew Bledsoe fully recovered from the Mo Lewis hit.
Saban, of course, had the audacity to switch quarterbacks in the 2017 title game against Georgia, subbing Tua Tagovailoa for Jalen Hurts at halftime.
Mostly, they were both very, very good at a very, very hard job, and their departure leaves a gaping hole not only for the men walking into the doors they’re walking out of — Jerod Mayo and Kalen DeBoer — but the sport itself.
Maybe they’ll be back elsewhere. Maybe they’ll replicate what they’ve done. It still isn’t likely to be the same. When giants leave the room, you notice their absence every bit as much as you did their presence.
There wasn’t a lot that was funny about the Jets season. But Aaron Rodgers actually saying these words with a straight face — “The bulls–t that has nothing to do with winning needs to get out of the building” — is more hilarious than all three “Hangover” movies combined.
I know it’s more fun to be on the winning end of a one-sided trade. But early on the Knicks-Raptors deal involving RJ Barrett-OG Anunoby-Immanuel Quickley really does look like the quintessential deal that helps both teams, a lot.
Could there be another Agbayani in the Mets’ lineup someday? Bruin Agbayani, 16, son of Benny, is the best prospect in Hawaii and is committed to South Carolina. “He wants to be a Met,” his pop says. “I told him how great New York is. If it happens that would make me proud.”
Farewell Cindy Morgan, who, as Lacey Underall (below), taught an awful lot of young fellas roughly my age that there was definitely more to life — and also to “Caddyshack” — than golf.
Lenny Moschitto: Bill Belichick was a great coach, but he can’t hide behind his 48-59 record without Tom. Brady Or is that: HC w/o TB = 48-59.
Vac: The statute of limitations on Belichick’s abbreviations no longer being funny probably lasts till 2099.
Thomas Cooney: As soon as I was getting prepared to give up on the Mets 2024 season, lo and behold! Let the Yacksel Rios era begin!!
Vac: It’s good to see Mets fans in midseason saltiness!
@11olv77: Enjoy watching the playoffs on TV again. The Giants and Jets are in New Jersey anyway.
@MikeVacc: Salty Eagles fans are my favorite Eagles fans.
Elon Semanza: After roughly half a baseball season (83 games), Joe Douglas’ record as JetsGM (27-56) is four games better than the ’62 Mets were (23-60) after as many games. He’s up four on the worst team of all time at the All-Star break. I think he can catch them.
Vac: Of course, Jets fans own the Morton’s Salt factory.
