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Saban's memories

Dolphins coach Nick Saban was asked a few questions about Bill Belichick and the passing of Belichick's father, Steve, at his Monday press conference.

On if he's spoken with Bill Belichick:
“I didn’t find out until late last night. I did try to call Bill. He was traveling this morning when we tried to call him again. Steve Belichick is as fine a person as I have ever really come into contact with. We all have our mentors and most of the time it is the big name guys that people associate you with, but when I was just a young coach at the Naval Academy in 1982, I coached with Steve and he has been a longtime friend. Of all the people I respect in this business, in terms of what I was able to learn from him and how he has helped me through the years, I probably have as much respect for Steve as anyone. It is kind of a unique situation. My dad was a coach and Bill’s dad is a coach. My dad was probably a better coach than me and if the truth was ever known and they ever had the opportunity, maybe Steve is a better coach than Bill. That is no disrespect to Bill, but Steve was a great coach. He just was always an assistant and never had an opportunity to do anything else. Terry and I and our family send our condolences, no doubt, but also just feel terrible because Steve and Jeannette are really our good friends. That is how we got to know Bill -- it was our association with Steve and Jeannette, so this is a tough one for me.”

On if he has a favorite story about Steve Belichick:
“We called him ‘the emperor.’ We had all the assistant coaches in one room there, with their desks in the corner. He had been there for so long that when the admiral left -- you know he had the great big chair -- Steve confiscated it in some kind of way from the military guys that he knew ... Since he was there for about 30 years, that was his chair, so we called him ‘the emperor.’ He had the biggest chair in the whole academy. He had the admiral’s chair.”