Bill Belichick, Nick Saban were often brutal with media. Now they are media.
Nick Saban sometimes referred to stories about his Alabama team that he viewed as too positive as "rat poison." He could be grumpy and cantankerous, particularly during his days as coach of the Miami Dolphins. Then, he told the media he wasn't going to coach the Crimson Tide.
"I guess I have to say it," Saban said. "I'm not going to be the Alabama coach." Spoiler alert, etc.
Bill Belichick once treated the media like we were a plague. As in bubonic.
Now, in a genuinely hilarious switch, Saban and Belichick are both media stars. It's difficult to put into words how remarkable this is.
When Saban went on the Paul Finebaum Show last month, the host said what many of us in the media were thinking: "Some people have labeled you as a media guy. Still hard for me to get used to."
Belichick and Saban joining the media is like Darth Vader joining the Rebel Alliance. Or Donald Trump getting a cabinet position inside a Kamala Harris administration. Belichick and Saban have to be laughing at us media folks. Just hysterically laughing at us. They are now making millions using the medium they once often scolded or in Belichick's case clearly despised.
And now? Saban is an analyst on ESPN. Belichick is doing so many media things he's more media than anyone else in the media.
Wrote TheAthletic’s Richard Deitsch and Andrew Marchand: "Belichick is everywhere. He’ll be a regular guest on Pat McAfee’s show, he has a permanent guest spot on ESPN’s 'Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli,' he’ll play a role on the CW’s 'Inside the NFL,' he has a 30-minute show with Peyton Manning on ESPN+ that will focus on that week’s 'Monday Night Football' matchup; he’s hosting 'Coach with Bill Belichick' – a weekly football analysis show for Underdog Fantasy that will run on YouTube – and he’ll be doing some work with SiriusXM during the NFL season. This dude has become Ryan Seacrest in one offseason."
Marchand estimated Belichick was making some $10 million for all of his media endeavors.
We've seen anti-media guys before join (speaking of Vader) the dark side before, but nothing in existence comes close to this. Particularly with Belichick.
Belichick was stubbornly analog in a media world that rapidly changed around him. He was a Flintstone in Jetsons universe. He could get away with it because he won 10 million Super Bowls.
He was so anti-media it at times became a running joke. "We're on to Cincinnati" developed into a legendary meme.
When it became public in 2016 that Belichick once wrote a note to then-President-elect Donald Trump, he was forced to address the note in a press conference.
"I've received a number of inquiries relative to a note that I wrote to Donald on Monday. Our friendship goes back many years," Belichick said. "I think anybody who's spent more than five minutes with me knows I'm not a political person. My comments are not politically motivated ...
"To me, friendship and loyalty is just about that," he added. "It's not about political or religious views. I write hundreds of letters and notes every month. It doesn't mean that I agree with every single thing that every person thinks about politics, religion or other subjects. But I have multiple friendships that are important to me, and that's what (the letter to Trump) was about."
But then, stunningly, he answered every follow-up question about the letter with one word: "Seattle." That was New England's next opponent.
Here's the interesting thing about Belichick. In one-on-one interviews, he can be remarkably charming and is extremely intelligent. I interviewed Belichick for a biography about Jim Brown and it was one of the best interviews I've ever done.
Belichick and Saban are close friends for many reasons with perhaps one of those reasons being how they view the media. They both saw it as a tool to be used, to send messages to their players. Especially Saban. He said this explicitly to Finebaum.
"What message do I want to send," Saban said, speaking of the purpose of his press conferences, "to our fans, to our players, and in general, to reinforce the culture of our program."
Now, the ultimate insiders are on the outside. Not so curmudgeonly. Not so aggressive. They are practically kind and sweet now when watching them do their media jobs.
Welcome, fellas. Good luck.