Whether you agree with what he's saying or not is irrelevant, however, at least for the purposes of this exercise today.The rhetoric that I am seeing online surrounding Saban's credentials as a legend in the annals of college football is concerning.Nick Saban, former head football coach at the University of Alabama, testifies before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in Washington, D.C., on June 3, 2026.(Win McNamee/Getty Images)Full disclosure, I'm not an Alabama fan nor am I particularly fond of Saban as a coach.TRUMP CONSIDERING EXECUTIVE ORDER TO REGULATE NIL AFTER MEETING WITH NICK SABAN: REPORTBeing a Florida Gators and Miami Dolphins fan, the man is responsible for some depressing times for both my college and pro teams, so you know I'm not harboring any pro-Saban biases.Hell, I just wrote a story about how Georgia is still a powerhouse program in the NIL era, so suffice it to say I haven't exactly been opposed to coming to the defense of some of my more bitter rivals.While Saban has been testifying before the Senate, many fans online have been attacking him, calling him a hypocrite.I'll reiterate that you don't have to agree with what he is saying, but what rubs me the wrong way is the accusations that Saban was nothing more than a glorified "bagman" who couldn't win without unfair advantages.I won't post every example here, but the summation of these claims basically boils down to "Saban could never win without giving five-stars Dodge Hellcats, that's why he left when NIL came along."For starters, let's address the initial claim that Saban quit because he couldn't compete in the NIL era.Saban's last year was 2023, a full two years after NIL was introduced.The Alabama Crimson Tide went 12-2, won an SEC Championship, and were a couple of bad center-quarterback snap exchanges from beating eventual national champion Michigan in the Rose Bowl.They also had the second-ranked recruiting class in the country coming in that next season, s...