Nick Saban Opens Up About a Major What-If From His Coaching Career

Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban said the New York Giants offered him their head coaching job while he led Michigan State, an offer that could have put him in the NFL eight years before his Miami Dolphins run.

Saban told SiriusXM host Chris "Mad Dog" Russo on Thursday that he and Giants general manager George Young set up a secret interview at Saban's house in East Lansing, Mich. "Yeah, they did offer me the job, actually," Saban said.

Saban's secret Giants interview

Nick Saban Opens Up About a Major What-If From His Coaching Career — Nick Saban on the ESPN College GameDay set during the 2026 Rose Bowl | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Giants fired Dan Reeves after the 1996 season, when Saban had just finished his second year with the Spartans. He said a college coach can't be seen chasing an NFL job.

"In some of these cases, it's very difficult in college," Saban said. "You have an opportunity to go to the NFL. You're still coaching. You're still recruiting. If you stay in college, you don't want it to upset your coaching, recruiting and all that. So you don't want to say that I'm going to go interview for the Giants job."

"So George and I worked out a deal," Saban said. "He said, 'Well, where do you think we can meet and nobody would know it?' And I said, 'The least obvious place you would ever think. Just come to my house in East Lansing and nobody will ever know it.' That's what he did."

Why didn't Saban take the job?

The offer first became public decades ago. A Jan. 16, 1997, New York Daily News report covered it, and Giants co-owner John Mara confirmed it in 2015.

"We were very impressed with him," Mara said. "We offered him the job."

Young told Mara and his father, Wellington Mara, that Saban was "the best candidate" he had ever interviewed. But Saban wanted control over personnel and the coaching staff, and the Giants wouldn't give a head coach that much power. So contract talks fell apart.

The Giants hired Jim Fassel instead, and he led them to the Super Bowl after the 2000 season.

"I would have loved to have had you," Russo told Saban. "Fassel did a good job, and he wanted to get the quarterback going and everything else. You would have been really good there."

Saban stayed at Michigan State through 1999, then won a national title at LSU, went 15-17 in two seasons with the Dolphins and returned to college at Alabama in 2007.

Saban docuseries premieres on ESPN

The 74-year-old told the story while promoting "Saban," a six-part ESPN docuseries on his career. The first episode airs Oct. 8 at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN, and all six episodes hit the ESPN app the same day.

The series covers his 17 seasons and six national titles at Alabama, plus his time at LSU and with the Dolphins. More than 70 people were interviewed for it, including Bill Belichick and Kirby Smart.

The ultimate Nick Saban “What If” moment 😱

Imagine if he coached the New York Football Giants 👀 pic.twitter.com/ZMqaRCgRZF
— SiriusXM Sports (@SiriusXMSports) October 1, 2026

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