Nick Saban Says He Caught a 6-Foot, 180-Pound Tarpon While Fishing in Florida

To hear him tell it, Nick Saban landed a huge, non-metaphorical catch for the great state of Alabama this week.

The Crimson Tide football coach opened up his presser at the SEC spring meetings Tuesday by regaling the media with a story about how he emerged victorious over a monstrous tarpon Monday night.

Sports Illustrated's Andy Staples tweeted out news of this most glorious revelation. Saban said he fought the fish to the bitter end and has the bruises to prove it.

Now, I'm typically a "pics or it didn't happen" guy when it comes to fish stories, but Saban might be the exception. This is a man who could tell me he reached into the water, lifted the 180-pound fish out with one hand and then re-enacted the "Raise Up" Petey Pablo music video with the tarpon as a gilled, ersatz T-shirt, and I'd hesitate to ask a follow-up question. He could probably do that.

But the real story here is that Saban does things other than stare flinty-faced into the distance as his mind solves problems mankind doesn't realize it has yet. I always pictured his leisure time as a morning spent constructing dioramas of decisive World War II battles and figuring out how he could've claimed total victory more efficiently.

I guess he's human being-ish after all.

Dan is on Twitter. He predicts the tarpon will start at cornerback by October.