Why did Nick Saban retire from Alabama, according to his Theo Von interview?

Nick Saban told Theo Von he retired because he never wanted to stay so long that his age and a fading ability to make a positive impact would take the Alabama program down. At 72, he found his last season very hard. He had two speeches ready for a 4 o'clock team meeting, one to stay and one to retire, and called his wife Terry, who told him that if the decision caused that much anxiety, now might be the time, while his health was still good.

• Saban says the hardest part was knowing the change would upend players, assistant coaches and staff.
• Saban says he missed his own children growing up and did not want to miss his grandchildren's.

▸In their words

“And that was 10 minutes to four,” Nick Saban · at 50:31 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von (2026-10-06). Read the whole episode summary →

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