ESPN College GameDay
Shane Gillis is arguably the top stand-up comedian in the industry at the moment and Nick Saban has no detectable sense of humor. Putting them together on stage for ESPN’s College GameDay in South Bend was basically creating all of the necessary ingredients for a proverbial bonfire and all that was needed was a spark.
On the GameDay set, Shane Gillis aimed a few jokes at Nick Saban about how the SEC’s dominance could be attributed to paying players and now in the NIL era the gap between the SEC and the rest of College Football is virtually nonexistent since paying players is legal. Saban was NOT happy with Shane at all.
Appearing on Talks of the Townn, Shane Gillis revealed that it wasn’t just a few guys joking around on set. He says Nick Saban was actually quite angry with him and that Kirk Herbstreit and Pat McAfee were instigators because they’d tricked Shane into believing that Nick has a sense of humor and likes to joke around. Here’s the latest from Shane:
The clip is also available on TikTok for anyone who can’t see Instagram posts behind a work filter or whatever.
Easily the funniest part of the story is how it all came to a close. That Saban was the only guy left on stage and Shane was the only person there to help him down after Saban just tore him a new one.
The visual image of Shane Gillis, a big dude who had signed to play with Army Football before pursuing comedy full time, gingerly helping 73-year-old Nick Saban to the ground like a dad helping a toddler after that toddler just had a full-blown meltdown. To have been a fly on the wall…