The New York Times has a pretty good story about Nick Saban’s flirtation with Texas from a couple of years ago. The amazing thing to me is the number of people associated with the Longhorns program who managed to delude themselves into thinking Jimmy Sexton was being something other than Jimmy Sexton.
Enter the biggest dick in college football.
In November, Steve Patterson, the former president and general manager of the N.B.A.’s Portland Trail Blazers, became the university’s athletic director, replacing Dodds. Patterson was tasked with cleaning up the mess at Texas, something he would soon begin to do. Of course, he had come to Texas well after the Sexton call with Tom Hicks and Hall. It wasn’t too long after Patterson had taken the job at Texas that Sexton called him, too.
Patterson says he believes he knew what Sexton was up to. “I’ve known Jimmy for 30 years,” he says. “I told him if he wanted to come here and drink bourbon and eat barbecue and talk about Saban, that’d be fine. But I told him not to come here if he just wanted to get Saban an extension and a raise at Alabama, which I thought was his intention all along.
“Of course, Jimmy took great affront to that, which is fine. He was just doing his job. But that was the end of the conversation. I never talked to Saban and we never made an offer.”
Which is a crying shame, if for no other reason than it would have been a gas to hear Saban’s reaction to being required to pay for his meals.
Get The Picture 
One thing good to say about Patterson is he called out that slime Jimmy Sexton on his motivation. If true, then Bama fans should question the loyalty of Little Nicky. He would sell them out if the money were right.
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Patterson is a fool. If you want Saban, you negotiate with Sexton and tell him, once terms are determined, that UT will sign the contract after Saban does. If Sexton uses you, you never made an offer and you know you tried.
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“Patterson is a fool.” There is considerable evidence to that.
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No doubt Patterson is a fool, but in this case, he knew exactly what Sexton was trying to do. Little Nicky wasn’t going anywhere, and he called Saban/Sexton’s bluff.
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Actually, I’d like to revise my earlier. Patterson would appear to be a fool, but about the people who hired him, there is no doubt.
Knowing what Sexton was doing hardly takes genius.
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Pattersons chest puffing decision to make that conversation public in order to show everyone how smart he is proves that he is the worst kind of fool.
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Puhleeze…Saban would never eat with his athletes in the dining hall.
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