Nick Saban and Deion Sanders appear to be back on good terms as the two are back together filming Aflac commercials for the fall. The two appeared in a video shared on social media by Sanders where both coaches are smiling alongside each other where Sanders referred to Saban as the “GOAT” before the seven-time champion joked that he may be referring to the Aflac duck.
2 🐐's. 1 🦆. No beef. @aflac @SMAC #CoachPrime #CoachSaban pic.twitter.com/esRqiJu6Bd
— COACH PRIME (@DeionSanders) July 12, 2022
The two were originally at odds following Saban’s comments from May where he accused Jackson State of paying its top recruit Travis Hunter a million dollars to join the program.
“We have a rule right now that says you cannot use name, image and likeness to entice a player to come to your school,” Saban said. “Hell, read about it in the paper. I mean, Jackson State paid a guy a million dollars last year who was a really good Division I player to come to school. It was in the paper, and they bragged about it. Nobody did anything about it.”
Sanders immediately took exception to Saban’s remarks sharing his thoughts on Twitter and vowing to address the situation.
You best believe I will address that LIE Coach SABAN told tomorrow. I was & awakened by my son @ShedeurSanders that sent me the article stating that WE PAYED @TravisHunterJr a Million to play at @GoJSUTigersFB ! We as a PEOPLE don’t have to pay our PEOPLE to play with our PEOPLE.
— COACH PRIME (@DeionSanders) May 19, 2022
Sanders would later further address Saban’s comments during an appearance on the “I Am Athlete Podcast” where he shared that the two had touched base to some degree and that he still holds the Alabama head coach in high regard.
“He reached out to my people,” Sanders said. “He didn’t reach out to me because he didn’t have my cell phone. Let me tell you how I get down. If you go at me in public, we have to deal with me in public. Don’t go with me in public and then try to deal with me in private. We can’t do that. Let’s come on a forum publicly and deal with it publicly. … We can’t do it any other way. That isn’t right. That isn’t cool I don’t hold grudges. I have the utmost respect for coach Nick Saban. Saban is the Magna Cum Laude of college football coaches. What he has accomplished in college football may never be accomplished again. I love who he is as a coach. What he did, that’s just a moment. I’m not going to put him in a category because of a bad moment. That’s not who he is. He had a bad moment. He got caught up.”
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