The most recent Alabama Football cover
Think about it, if Alabama wins, the big story is a 12-0 regular season and shedding of the six-year rabid monkey. If Auburn wins, the big story is Seven-in-a-Row and ruining its rival’s perfect regular season.
Magazine publishers know ‘Bama fans are sick and will bankrupt their families by purchasing thousands of copies of any publication with “The Tahd” or “Nick Savior” on the cover. Therefore, it’s no surprise that in Saban’s two years, Alabama football has been featured on several different magazine covers, including Forbes, which so masterfully connected the dots between money, power, and expectation this past summer.
With last week’s release of Sporting News Magazine’s Crimson/White cover feature, we decided to recap the Saban/’Bama covers since “The Savior” came to Tuscaloosa:
Other UA coaches have been on magazine covers, most notably Bahr Bryant, who graced too many to list here. But our research unearthed two of our favorites, both from January 1980. Apparently Funky Fresh Magazine and Rowing Monthly were obscure publications owned by the same publisher, and the same photo-shoot was used for both editions that month:
Funky Fresh Magazine, January 1980
Rowing Monthly, January 1980
A Drug Called Tradition 