Now that legendary former Alabama head coach Nick Saban has been retired for a couple of years, it’s easy to look back and wonder what could have been had he not taken the job in Tuscaloosa back in 2007.
When Saban left the Miami Dolphins to take over the Tide, he was just two games below .500 in total at 15-17, and was a quarterback away from experiencing some real success. Before his final season in the NFL in 2006, he nearly landed that quarterback in New Orleans Saints Hall of Famer Drew Brees.
Brees was a free agent after Saban’s first year in 2005, and Saban wanted to sign him, but infamously, the Dolphins medical staff did not clear him from a torn labrum that ended his season with the San Diego Chargers, and he ended up with the Saints.
During an appearance with “The Dan Patrick Show,” Brees told the story of the visit to Miami which nearly altered the course of football history both in college and the NFL.
“On paper, this was the easiest decision in the world. It’s the Miami Dolphins all the way,” Brees said. “Nick Saban is the head coach, has done an outstanding job on that defense, one of the best defenses in the league — Zach Thomas, Jason Taylor. Like, they had finished that last season, the previous season, winning seven in a row…On my recruiting trip there, we’re eating dinner on (team owner) Wayne Huizenga’s yacht. And he’s sitting there talking about how every summer we’re going to go to Scotland and play golf ‘me, you and Dan.’ I’m like, ‘Dan?’ They’re like, ‘Yeah, Dan Marino.’ I’m like, oh, so Dan is like my mentor now? You know what I mean? Like, this is the greatest thing ever, you know? State of Florida, no state income tax. I’m like, I mean, this is a no-brainer, right?”
“But also on that trip, they put me through, like, this rigorous health inspection basically, like, six hours of testing – contrast, MRI tube, you know, where I’m in the MRI, literally, for two hours. And they’re trying to assess just the damage that was done to my shoulder and the chances of me being able to come back and be the same…And at the end of the day, Nick Saban looked me in the eye and said, ‘You know, our doctors think you have a 25 percent chance of ever coming back and playing again.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, OK, I know what they say, but what do you think?’ He’s like, ‘I got to believe what the doctors are telling me. But we still want you, but it’s just letting you know kind of what’s been said.’”
As a result, Brees wound up signing with the Saints, won a Super Bowl, and Saban was at Alabama a year after the fact. Had Brees come to Miami, perhaps it could have been the Dolphins who found team success, and perhaps Saban would have turned down Alabama entirely.
Of course, Tide fans are thrilled with the way things worked out, but it is fascinating to look back and think about what could have been if the team doctors saw things differently.
Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP and hear him every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5, available free online.
