Nick Saban is not one to allow distractions to shift his laser-like focus from the present matter at hand.
The all-time greatest college football coach’s lack of concern over matters unrelated to “The Process” extends to presidential elections, weekly AP rankings and, apparently, bar robberies.
In a recent interview on “The Next Round” podcast, Saban was asked about the night he was at a bar in Youngstown, Ohio, which was robbed at gunpoint while he was talking football with a colleague.
Shortly after Alabama’s matchup with the University of Oklahoma in the 2014 Sugar Bowl, Saban recalled the story, which consisted of him and then-Sooners head coach Bob Stoops’ uncle, also named Bob Stoops, talking ball at the local bar.
At the time, Saban was on a recruiting trip as an assistant coach at Michigan State University. Stoops was the head coach of South High School in Columbus, Ohio.
“We’re drawing plays, talking football, arguing about stuff,” Saban told ESPN in 2015. “Someone came in with a shotgun and held the bartender up and left. We didn’t know what happened.”
He added, “The police came, and the bartender said ‘don’t ask these guys what happened, because they didn’t even see it.’”
While the Crimson Tide head coach has recounted the story in the past, its resurfacing prompted further detailing of the situation by USA Today sports columnist Berry Tramel, who reached out to Stoops for additional insight.
When asked to recall the scene, Stoops acknowledged that the story seemed far-fetched to some.
“I do remember,” he said. “Oh geez, telling that story, you wonder if anyone thinks you’re BS-ing. ‘He’s embellishing that.’”
“We were in this bar,” continued Stoops. “Just talking football. We were moving salt shakers, anything we could grab, talking football.
“I remember vividly, there was a guy across from us, it was a snakelike bar, and the guy gets this glass, he smashes it on the ground,” he detailed. “I happened to be looking over that way, all of a sudden, I see him smash that, and he was really mad.”
“I said, ‘Hey, buddy, is something wrong?’”
“He said, ‘Hey, you (expletive), we just got robbed!’”
“I’m like, ‘You’re blanking me.’”
“He goes, ‘No, they had a shotgun pointed right at you two blank-holes.’”
According to Stoops’ recount of the story, police arrived 20 minutes later. The bartender told law enforcement officers, “You don’t have to talk to those guys (Saban and Stoops), they don’t even know what’s going on.”
“I didn’t believe it,” Stoops said of the armed robbery. “I had to come home and read the newspapers. Sure enough, it was in the paper the next day. It was crazy.”
Dylan Smith is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
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