Alabama coach Nick Saban wasn't holding back in sharing his opinion on players who trash talk their opponents.
During his first radio appearance of the season on his show called "Hey Coach," Saban went on an unprompted rant about how players talk to each other on the field.
“I watch football on TV sometimes and there’s a lot of things I see,” Saban said (via AL.com). “Self-indulgent behavior. Players bringing attention to themselves. A lack of discipline. When you don’t have respect for discipline, a lot of bad things happen. You get a lot of penalties. You get a lot of late hits. You get a lot of bad decisions. You don’t really play smart in critical situations. That’s never been the trademark of our team and that’s something we really want to reestablish with our players.”
That's when Saban really got to his point.
“We’ve always had a rule where the players don’t talk to the opposing team,” Saban said, his voice rising. “I tell the players if you want to talk sh— to the other team, join the god— debate team.”
I know we haven’t played a game and there’s no post-game rants yet, but this is an early contender for Saban soundbite of the season. pic.twitter.com/7Kee8jhN1B
— Chicago Gump (@GriffinTSmith) August 30, 2019
Saban immediately apologized for his coarse language, explaining: "I'm really sorry for using the Lord's name in vain, but I just get really hot about what I see in sports that we promote in the media and in every other way that really is not a good thing. That's not what we are trying to accomplish in what we do."
The Crimson Tide have made it to the national championship game each of the last four seasons, but came up short last season with a lopsided loss to Clemson. Saban has led Alabama to the title game seven times since taking over the program in 2007.
Alabama opens the season Saturday against Duke with kickoff set for 3:30 p.m. ET.