The sports media couldn’t get enough of Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher’s withering takedown of rival Alabama coach Nick Saban on Thursday as a “narcissist” who “thinks he’s God.”
Nothing drives TV viewership and page views like football. With the college game and the NFL in a spring lull, Fisher’s broadside against a “despicable” Saban could be the greatest coaching tirade since Mike Gundy’s “I’m a man, I’m 40” rant at Oklahoma State.
The media’s covering it like the SEC’s version of the Hatfields and McCoys.
Saban’s seven national championships have made him one of the most envied and featured coaches in sports. ESPN.com ran three Fisher vs. Saban stories Thursday, including full videos of the Aggies and Crimson Tide leaders’ respective comments and reaction from “gobsmacked” analyst Paul Finebaum.
Saban lost to Fisher, his former assistant coach, at College Station last year, Finebaum noted. Then he lost the National Championship Game to another ex-assistant: Kirby Smart of Georgia.
A frustrated Mt. Saban finally “erupted,” said Finebaum on the “Get Up” morning show.
After Saban claimed Texas A&M “bought” its recruits via lucrative NIL deals, Sports Illustrated posted three Fisher stories on its site, including a column from Pat Forde detailing the “All-Out SEC War.”
The two coaches have taken their public feud to a “level maybe never seen” in college football, according to SI.
“Hell, circle it in blood. This has immediately escalated into the most bitter rivalry of 2022 — if not ever,” wrote Forde.
The New York Post asked if Fisher’s “wild press conference” was college football — or reality TV.
Stay tuned for the next round, warned the Post, with Jackson State coach Deion Sanders warming up to rebut Saban’s comments about his school allegedly paying millions for recruits.
“You best believe I will address that LIE Coach SABAN told,” tweeted Sanders.
