ATLANTA — Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban’s enduring paradox is that for all his historic accomplishments — six national championships (as many as Bear Bryant), an absurd five in the past nine seasons — he is undeniably a masochist.
Saban should not be a sympathetic figure. He is an extremely demanding boss of unpaid players who makes $7 million a year. He is never the underdog. He wins by brute strength, both literally — those titanic defensive lines — and figuratively, through recruiting, giving himself better teams. One site ranked all of Saban’s losses at Alabama “by how happy they’ve made the world.