It may be hard to believe, but Nick Saban and Bill Belichick once shared a sideline together in the National Football League. From 1991-94, Saban served under Belichick as defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns.
These days, both coaches employ similar coaching styles, but back in the Browns’ days, it was a much different story.
During his weekly appearance with Hey Coach on 95.3 The Bear and Tide 100.9, the Alabama Crimson Tide told one hilarious story of a secret he never told the New England Patriots head coach…until now.
Saban said Belichick would frequently make him change his defensive play calls after they’d already been signaled. In fact, Saban claims that this once caused the Browns to lose a game.
To get past that issue, Saban created a secret system with star linebacker Pepper Johnson.
“I said ‘Look Pepper. I’m going to give you a signal, and you touch your face mask when you get the signal.’ If Bill wants to change after that we’re done,” Saban explained. “I’m gonna say ‘[Pepper] looked away. I can’t give him another signal.’
“And that’s how we operated the rest of the time.”
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Saban joked that if his former head coach had found out, he “probably would’ve killed” him.
Hopefully, Belichick gets asked about this so we can get his response.
