Idiotic Coachspeak of the Week

Actually, this may qualify as the boneheaded statement of the year, as least as far as football coaches go.

Saban says 'Bama loss a 'catastrophic event'

Alabama's latest loss has coach Nick Saban searching for ways to motivate his team.

Citing the 9-11 terrorist attacks and Pearl Harbor, Saban said Monday his team must rebound like America did from a "catastrophic event."

In this case, that would be an embarrassing 21-14 loss Saturday to Louisiana-Monroe, dropping the Tide's record to 6-5.

"Changes in history usually occur after some kind of catastrophic event," Saban said during the opening remarks of his weekly news conference. "It may be 9-11, which sort of changed the spirit of America relative to catastrophic events. Pearl Harbor kind of got us ready for World War II, or whatever, and that was a catastrophic event."

Naturally, a spokesthing spun it.

A Saban spokesman said the coach chose the 9-11 and Pearl Harbor references to illustrate the challenges facing his team.

"What Coach Saban said did not correlate losing a football game with tragedy; everyone needs to understand that. He was not equating losing football games to those catastrophic events," football spokesman Jeff Purington said in a statement to The Associated Press. "The message was that true spirit and unity become evident in the most difficult of times. Those were two tremendous examples that everyone can identify with."

Maybe this traveling salesman can show his team film of the Miami Dolphins to see what a real disaster is all about.

More here.

The latest defeat was definitely a low-point, especially following on the heels of losses to No. 1 LSU and Mississippi State. It led Saban to another non-football analogy.

"They talk about alcoholics and people like that who never ever change until they hit rock bottom," Saban said. "Well, they change because when they hit rock bottom they have an awareness, they have an acceptance and a commitment to change.

He takes himself way too seriously.