My Friend Nick Saban

Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Alistair Henderson
MDBW Staff Writer

I was chatting with my old buddy Nick Saban yesterday.

We chew the fat most days about this and that. Sometimes this, mostly that. Anyway, he was telling me how busy he’s been these past couple of months since he moved to Miami, and I said me too, and we kind of commiserated with each other for a while.

Nick’s a big success at what he does and has a pretty stressful job I guess, and so these chats of ours sort of ease the tension for him he says.

Yesterday he told me the person he really admires the most in the world is Prince Charles, which kind of surprised me a bit. I always pictured the Prince as a bit of a lightweight. A tad wimpy if you know what I mean. Not really someone my friend Nick would look up to. But apparently the Prince was overheard at a photo shoot whispering to his sons, in reference to the local members of the paparazzi, “I can’t stand those bloody people”, and since then Nick has taken to playing polo and wearing a crown in his office.

He says at his job the members of the press are always trying to get in the place, so he locked the doors on them. Laughed like a hyena when he told me. Says one guy got stuck in a bathroom window trying to get in. He says the best fun he and his co-workers have is reading the stories which the press and others make up because they don’t have any real ones.

Actually, I haven’t seen Nick for quite a while now. He says he rarely gets away from work, but he does get to watch a lot of films. So I told him I thought “Hostage” was pretty good, and he said he didn’t think that was very funny, and I said I didn’t think it was supposed to be a comedy. To be truthful, Nick doesn’t find anything much funny except press jokes, but that’s just his way I guess.

I really don’t know what my friend Nick does for a living, but he says he has made some pretty good friends. He says his best buddy is the janitor, because he also works some pretty late hours. And he enjoys chatting with a guy who’s one of those natural health holistic healers or something out in California.

Right now, Nick says he’s concerned about the draft. Well, as far as I could make out President Bush said to heck with that, he wasn’t going to bother with a draft, so I don’t know why Nick should be concerned. Said something about making the most of a second. But that’s Nick. Most of us worry about making the most of a few hours, and he’s worrying about a second. Guess that’s why he’s a big success and I’m not.

Anyway, I figured you might like to hear about my friend Nick. He’s kind of an interesting guy. I’ll keep you posted.