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Nick Saban is the reason you should watch the solar eclipse

Commentary: Asked about whether his Alabama football team will be given time to watch the eclipse, the coach offers a fascinating reply.

Chris Matyszczyk
2 min read

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.


CFP National Championship

He'll see it on TV. 

Brian Blanco / Getty Images

In college sports, the young men and women who make college coaches millions are called student-athletes.

You might expect, then, that coaches would be only too keen for their charges to take a little time to experience and learn from the wonders of the world during Monday's America-wide solar eclipse.

And then there's famed Alabama football coach Nick Saban. 

A man of clearly refined erudition, Saban was asked during a press conference on Saturday whether he'd let his players watch the eclipse.

"We'll set it up so that if the players want to go out there, get some sunglasses and look at it, then I guess they can," he began, with effusive enthusiasm.

He admitted, though, that he doesn't care all that much about the event. 

"You know, I watch the Weather Channel every day. They're already saying what it's going to look like in every city in America. So what's going to be significant?" he continued.

Indeed, what could possibly be significant about an event that so few might experience in a lifetime?

You see, the great coach wants to help you learn that experiencing the wonders of the world for yourself just isn't worth it. 

He explained that people are pouring in to Clayton, Georgia, to prepare for the eclipse. Clayton is on the path of totality.

"My house will probably be the only empty house on the lake," Saban said. "So I'm going to watch it on TV."

If you were even doubting for a moment whether it's worth watching the eclipse, this Sabanic moment should persuade you to get out there and see it for yourself (safely, of course).

Too many these days think that watching something on TV is somehow enough of a real thing. Or even as real as the real thing.

Too many technologies encourage us to live within them, rather than explore what some might call real life.

So even if you have an "important" meeting, even if you've read the estimates that US employers may lose as much as $694 million during a 20-minute period as workers go outside to see something far bigger than themselves, go do it.

Afterward, you can share stories of what it was like for you. While Nick Saban tells his next press conference that it was just like the Weather Channel had predicted.