Following the election, coaches and players around the country were being asked for their thoughts on the historic event. Some were more candid than others, while Alabama Crimson Tide football coach Nick Saban claimed to be unaware of the event entirely.
This appears to have rubbed Coastal Carolina head coach Joe Moglia the wrong way. Moglia said that Saban’s comments were “disrespectful to his team, his school, his state and his country”.
Moglia, meanwhile, went completely in the opposite direction. Not only did he encourage his players to use their political voice and vote, he went so far as to bus his players out to their polling place. Saban later clarified that he voted via an absentee ballot, but that has done little to slow the backlash in the wake of the comments.
Magolia went on to comment further:
The reason I’m disappointed, No. 1, he’s the highest-paid public employee that exists in the United States, but it’s far greater than that for me,” Moglia said following his weekly press conference. “The threat of terrorism is probably going to be with us for the next couple generations. So it’s the military that has to protect us, and I don’t think ever before in the history of mankind has the world needed the economic and military leadership of the United States.
… In a democracy we get a chance to pick those leaders. So to pick the leader of the free world last Tuesday was the most important thing going on in the world that day, and to not realize that and not to be aware of that frankly is disrespectful to his team, to his school, to his state, to the country. There’s still a piece of me that can’t believe he even said that.
While Saban continues to win on the field, many feel that he isn’t making the most of his massive platform as head coach of a major FBS program. Saban appears content to keep his political leanings out of his coaching career, which is understandable, but perhaps went too far in the opposite direction.
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