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ESPN College GameDay hosts Rece Davis and Pat McAfee nearly brought the famed pregame show to a tragic end a year ago with a segment about Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe. The segment surrounded shirts that Milroe had created that read “LANK“, which Davis revealed stands for “let a naysayer know.”
McAfee, however, turned beet red with the belief that Davis was going to replace the word “naysayer” with the widely used slang version of the N-Word. McAfee as well as co-hosts Desmond Howard and Joey Galloway burst out laughing, while Davis tried to keep the show on traffic and Kirk Herbstreit looked on in a confused manner before the lightbulb went on.
The joke continued into the following week’s broadcast of the national championship game when McAfee again referenced Davis’ “naysayer” comment. Well, as it turns out, not only was Davis telling the truth, but it was Nick Saban who initially coined the phrase.
“I went in and gave a regular pep talk and I said we need to let all naysayers know..
Terrion Arnold and Jalen Milroe made it a public thing..
That became the rallying cry of our team”
YES IT DID COACH 😂😂 #CollegeGameDay https://t.co/2Fz2OWTNdV pic.twitter.com/Zw90nIigH7
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) November 23, 2024
Saban revealed on Saturday’s episode of College GameDay that he initially created the phrase during a pep talk in the 2023 season. He told the team that they needed to “let all naysayers know” about them after a loss to Texas and near loss to South Florida.
Saban said that Milroe and teammate Terrion Arnold then took the phrase and made it public, which he never expected to happen.
“That became the rallying cry of our team,” Saban said as both McAfee and Howard again struggled to maintain their composure.
To his credit, Milroe recently told a similar version of the story on an episode of the Cover 3 podcast with Ryan Clark and Channing Crowder.
Milroe also maintained that he’s only ever used the word “naysayers” while referring to the phrase. You can determine for yourself whether you believe that or not. But one thing is certain, Saban clearly didn’t expect the phrase to become what it has.