Nick Saban Is Legitimately Funny in New Commercial

Legendary coach has some decent acting chops.
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Nick Saban and Bill Belichick are both doing this thing where it appears we'll somehow be seeing a lot more of them in post-coaching media than we ever did while they were on the sidelines. Saban, last seen in the vicinity of a mid-Guinness Pat McAfee and with the College GameDay crew over in Ireland, has returned to the commercial well with some genuinely good acting in a new VRBO spot.

The plot? Saban has broken free of the AFLAC duck that followed him around for so many years and is now offering up his stately home on one of the competitor sites. We know this because the woman arriving to the joint asks if this is what Saban is doing now. Then Saban, arguably the greatest college football coach of all time, inundates his guests with a bunch of rules and regulations—just killing the vibe.

He's super-serious and not at all chill about check-in time. Thinking about taking a luxurious shower? Think again. There's a five-minute cap because he's not running a spa. There are no games. There's no fun. Kids aren't even allowed in the house. Wait, actually, that last one sounds like a pretty good idea.

Saban mows the lawn while the family is trying to eat and basically threatens them if they so much as think about touching his barbecue. He hangs around to police a two-flush maximum on all the toilets connected to his septic field. Then he gets in his own hot tub with a couple and proclaims it to be "daddy time."

All in all, terrific stuff. It's not just the stunt casting that makes this funny. Saban is legitimately good at this. Remember in The Office when Kevin Malone said he had a 10,000-1 ticket on John Cougar Mellencamp winning an Oscar? A similar flier on Saban would not be a waste of a future.


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Kyle Koster

KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.