Nick Saban Gave the Perfect Answer to: "Are you worth your $11 million salary this season?"

I want college football players and college basketball players to be paid. They generate revenue. At the same time, I can understand some of the outrage over coaches making astronomical salaries – in 39 of 50 states in 2016, the highest-paid employee in the state was a coach – while players get nothing. Surely, a middle ground can be found.

That being said, Nick Saban was asked this week whether or not he was worth his $11 million salary this season. His answer was tremendous, and actually very un-Saban like. Instead of snapping or getting snooty, he responded with this:

Pure honesty. From humble beginnings as the son of a man who ran a Dairy Queen and a service station, Saban worked hard to get where he is. He wasn’t gifted a job at an early age; he worked his tail off. And then he rose to the top of his profession, and he was in high demand. Still is.

Don’t hate the player, hate the game. College football is big business. Nick Saban is great at his job. If Alabama didn’t want to pay him $11 million, trust me, a half dozen other schools would line up to do so because winning = money in college football.