Chris Stewart discusses Coach Saban at Chamber luncheon
Despite sitting down with Alabama football head coach Nick Saban each week, Chris Stewart hasn’t had the chance for small talk.
“How long did you and I talk today, Bill [Powell], 10 minutes? That’s about how much small talk I’ve had with coach in five years, give or take nine minutes,” Stewart said, as he addressed the Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce president.
Stewart is the host of The Nick Saban Show, a program where he discusses that week’s game with Saban. With the coach, Stewart said there just isn’t time for small talk. Saban’s Saturday schedule is non-stop, Stewart said, and the show is the tail end of that day – sometimes they won’t get to record until after midnight.
“Nick Saban ain’t spending an hour with me, and I’m OK with that,” Stewart said. “He’s got other things to do. If we spend 20 minutes, his toe starts tapping and the arms start getting folded and crossed, and I know we’ve got to wrap it up.”
Stewart started his career in broadcasting in 1988, and he has worked at Birmingham Southern and UAB. In addition to The Nick Saban Show, Stewart is the play-by-play announcer for Alabama men’s basketball and baseball. He also has his own daily sports radio show in Tuscaloosa.
“I have figured life out,” Stewart said. “I get a chance to sit in my basement, on my backside, talk to my friends for a few hours and I got somebody to pay me for it. It’s a good gig.”
Stewart said he is thankful for the opportunities he has and the games he gets to watch, including Alabama’s 2011 defeat of Penn State in Happy Valley, when Alabama beat Tennessee the eighth year in a row and 2013’s last minute loss to Auburn.
“I’m so fortunate because I can look at dominoes that fell one-by-one that have led me to wherever I happen to be today,” Stewart said.
A few weeks ago, Stewart had former Alabama head coach Gene Stallings on his radio show. He said while Alabama’s run under Saban has been great, he will always miss Stallings’ press conferences.
“It didn’t matter. Coach Stallings’ press conferences were all the same. You’d ask Coach Stallings a question, he would cut you off before you could finish asking it by giving the short answer,” Stewart said. “He would then repeat your question and then give a long-form answer to the question.”
After his anecdotes about Alabama football and a few impressions of past players and coaches, Stewart thanked the chamber for hosting him. As a Hoover resident, Stewart said he appreciated the work of the local business owners and community members.
“I appreciate what you as business owners in the community do to allow citizens such as myself to raise children here, go to church here, to have lifelong friends here,” he said, “and I hope that you’ll continue to do all of the things you have done at this point to continue to make the City of Hoover great.”
“Now you’ve got Coach Saban, which people tune into for the same reason that a good number of people tune into NASCAR races – because they’re waiting on the big one. And the big one’s really cool, as long as you’re not behind the wheel," Stewart said.
“My job is to get our alive and avoid the big one.”