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December 1, 2008

Nick Saban Never Smiles

Nick Saban, the head coach of the top-ranked Alabama football team, has something of a dual reputation. Outside of fan circles, he's widely known as the prime symbol of college football's corporate excess and deceitful posturing. Among college-football aficionados who think $32-million contracts are not necessarily appalling, though, he's known as the ultimate hardass; the heir to the stern Bear Bryant legacy. Or as Buzz Bissinger puts it, his face is "locked most of the time in a constipated grimace."

Saban

Saban's pained face, via Wikipedia.

Bissinger isn’t the only one who's analyzing Saban's surly countenance. Earlier this year, Birmingham News columnist Ray Melick wrote an article titled, "Will Coach Saban ever smile?" The Huntsville Times's Mark McCarter accused the coach of looking like "the pragmatic, serious guy who'd pass out toothbrushes instead of Reese's Cups and M&Ms to trick-or-treaters."

After Alabama drubbed Auburn in the Iron Bowl, Sportsline's Gregg Doyel took the analogy to its creamy green extreme, noting that even in victory the coach "looked like a guy with an avocado allergy at a guacamole convention."







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