Nick Saban was caught on a hot mic criticizing the Dallas Cowboys' draft pick, calling it a 'reach.' His subsequent on-air comments were notably more diplomatic, raising questions about sanitized NFL coverage.
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Edit by Liam McGuire, Comeback Media.
Nick Saban said exactly what he thought about the Dallas Cowboysâ first-round pick. He just didnât mean for anyone to hear it.
As ABCâs NFL Draft broadcast was returning from a commercial break last Thursday night, a hot mic caught Saban reacting to the news that Dallas had selected Malachi Lawrence with the 23rd pick. âWow, this is a reach,â Saban said, apparently unaware that his microphone was live. A few seconds of silence followed before Rece Davis welcomed viewers back, and Roger Goodell stepped to the podium to make it official.
When Sabanâs turn came to weigh in on the pick, something interesting happened. Gone was the blunt, unfiltered reaction that had accidentally made it to air. In its place was a carefully constructed pivot of Saban explaining that Lawrence had actually been one of his sleepers heading into Friday night, that he thought the rest of the league had overlooked him, and that the Cowboys deserved credit for not letting him slip.
It was a masterful recovery, sure, but it got Mike Florio thinking. Because if the most honest thing Saban said all night only made air by accident, what does that say about everything else?
On Mondayâs PFT Live, Florio wanted to know why the version of Nick Saban that accidentally made it to air â the one who called the Cowboysâ pick a reach without hesitation â disappeared the moment the cameras were pointed at him. And more importantly, whether that moment was unique to Saban, or whether it was just another example of what happens when former coaches and players take jobs in sports media and suddenly find themselves weighing loyalty to their audience against loyalty to the industry they never really left.
Nick Saban referred to the Cowboys' selection of Malachi Lawrence as a 'reach' during a hot mic moment.
Saban's on-air comments were much more positive, claiming Lawrence was a sleeper and praising the Cowboys for the pick.
The incident raises concerns about the authenticity and transparency of NFL media coverage, suggesting it may be overly sanitized.
Rece Davis is the host who welcomed viewers back to the broadcast after Saban's hot mic moment.
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âWhen did it become a faux pas, when did it become frowned upon to say a guyâs a reach?â Florio asked. âWhatâs wrong with that? That used to be OK, but now itâs âOh, no, no, no, no, we canâtâŠâ And I think itâs all under the guise of, we canât undermine this kidâs moment, so weâre not going to say anything. They can take anyone in that spot; they can take a punter in that spot. They could take a long snapper in that spot. They could take me in that spot, and theyâre never going to say, âMaybe we couldâve gotten this guy later.'â
The answer, according to Chris Simms, isnât really about protecting the playerâs moment at all. Itâs about something more self-serving than that.
âWhat you get with the ex-coaches is they have relationships with these teams, and these people,â Simms said, âand they donât want to offend them either. Thatâs always going to be the question with coaches when theyâre on TV. Are they gonna really let you know the truth? Are they going to really let it be known, or are they going to be worried about hurting the feelings of their other coach friends in the business?â
âYour loyalty is to the audience,â Florio claimed. âYour duty is to the audience. You need to be honest with the audience. This isnât some political game. You canât worry about who may be upset because you speak the truth. If theyâre upset, thatâs their problem. Now, look, I understand that doing that can create some complications in your life. Then donât take the job. Donât put yourself in a position where youâre like, âOh, Iâve got to be careful what I say here. I might piss off this person. I might piss off that person.â Youâre going to piss off the audience because youâre going to be untruthful to the audience.â
To illustrate the point, Florio went back to Jon Gruden. When Gruden, now with Barstool Sports, left coaching to join ESPNâs Monday Night Football booth in 2009, the expectation from anyone who had watched him stalk sidelines and scream at officials for a decade was that they were finally going to get the unfiltered version, the Gruden who had strong opinions about everyone in the league and no particular reason to keep them to himself anymore.
Thatâs not what the version viewers got. Simms, who played under Gruden in Tampa Bay, knew that better than anyone. People who had worked with Gruden said they had never heard him be so complimentary to everyone, and that the version showing up on Monday nights bore almost no resemblance to the one they knew behind closed doors. There were coaches Gruden would praise effusively on the broadcast â calling them brilliant, one of the best heâd ever been around â while Simms knew from his own time in that locker room that Gruden had spent years telling players that same coach was the dumbest in football.
The audience had no way of knowing any of that. They were getting the carefully managed broadcast version of Jon Gruden.
Itâs a problem that isnât going away, because the incentives that create it arenât going away either. What Sabanâs hot mic moment exposed â briefly, accidentally, before he smoothed it over â is that the most honest draft analysis of the entire first round came from a moment nobody was supposed to hear. Everything that came after it was the version Saban decided the audience should get instead.
Florioâs argument is that the audience deserved the first version. They usually donât get it.
The post Mike Florio questions sanitized NFL coverage after Nick Saban hot mic slip appeared first on Awful Announcing.