Roll Damn Tide
Alabama safety Jordan Battle now the third player to confirm that Nick Saban loves a very specific dirty joke
Almost two years ago to the day, former Alabama running back Josh Jacobs joined "The Dan Patrick Show" a few days after scoring a pair of touchdowns in his NFL debut with the Las Vegas Raiders. During the interview, Patrick asked Jacobs if he had a favorite Nick Saban story from Jacobs' time in Tuscaloosa.
"Oooo, sh-t," Jacobs said with all sorts of trepidation in his voice. Patrick smartly egged him on, telling Jacobs he was no longer at Alabama, so he wasn't going to get in trouble. Then, the stunning money quote came.
"Saban likes a lot of like, 'deez nuts' jokes," Jacobs said. "It's funny, because I hadn't heard one of those since middle school, and when I went to college Saban used to do it a lot."
Patrick had the exact same reaction as everyone listening. Essentially saying "wait, what?" Jacobs gave an example, saying that one day he caught five passes at practice in a row, to which Saban said "Hey Josh, if you want to hold all the balls, hold deez."
At the time, it felt like it may have been a joke Jacobs was playing on the media. Some sort of elaborate troll to get people to believe that the notoriously uptight and always-on-edge Saban would ever have time for a 5th-grade-level joke. However, Calvin Ridley, a former Crimson Tide receiver now with the Atlanta Falcons, confirmed that Saban had also used the joke on him:
Now, 732 days later, a current Alabama player, safety Jordan Battle, became the third member of the Crimson Tide to claim this is a very real thing that Saban does, which yielded one of the more awkward press conference exchanges you'll ever see:
Credit to Ridley and Jacobs for waiting until they were far, far away from campus to reveal Saban's dirty-little secret. As for Battle, there is a strong chance this is the last time he ever speaks to the media, and no one would be surprised if he disappears entirely off the face of the earth. The content gods salute you for your service.