Dave Wilson is an editor for ESPN.com since 2010. He previously worked at The Dallas Morning News, San Diego Union-Tribune and Las Vegas Sun.
ON A THURSDAY night in September, Nick Saban sat in front of a crowd of fans with a headset on, bracing himself for a question. The Crimson Tide were coming off a loss to Texas, their first home nonconference loss since Saban’s first season in Tuscaloosa way back in 2007.
Even worse, the Longhorns manhandled Alabama up front, pressuring Jalen Milroe on 49% of his 39 dropbacks and sacking him five times. Alabama averaged just 3.1 yards per carry.
Saban knew what was coming. Here was Peewee from Grand Bay, always the first caller on “Hey Coach & The Nick Saban Show,” the weekly call-in radio program. Peewee had a specific interest in the offensive line, so much so that he was sometimes called the “line coach emeritus” by Saban.
But before Peewee could even ask a question, Saban went on the offensive.
“Well, Peewee, I’ve been wanting to talk to you all week, man. I mean, we gotta firm up the pocket,” Saban says, gesticulating like he was talking to his team. “We’re setting too soft. We’re getting pushed back in the middle. Aight, everybody thinks we can’t hold up against the blitz, but they’re sacking us with a four-man rush, one three-man rush. Only one sack came off of a pressure. So I wanted to ask you: What the hell’s going on?”
“So I wanted to ask you, ‘What the hell is going on?'”
“I believe you covered it all right there, Coach.”
The setting for the weekly show, in a restaurant in front of a crowd, always revealed a different side of the fiery coach, showcasing the masterful way that Saban handled the pressure cooker that is Alabama football. At news conferences, Saban hammered home his points while sometimes hammering the people who asked the questions. But here Saban was disarming a fan before he could even get started. The coach demonstrated weekly on the show that he was quick on his feet, self-effacing and most of all, genuinely loved hearing from the people who loved his team.
And for people like 65-year-old Elbert “Peewee” Roberts of Grand Bay — “in the very southwest corner of the state of Alabama, four miles from the Mississippi state line” he said — it offered a direct line to the most important person in the state.
“He’s always said when he came to the show, that that was his first opportunity for the entire week to see and talk to people outside of the football complex,” Peewee said. “And I’m the first guy that calls.”
In November, Peewee made the 250-mile trip to Baumhower’s Victory Grille in Tuscaloosa to see the show in person, which he’s done from time to time. Once, in 2014, the show’s producers said that Peewee hadn’t called in. That was concerning to Saban, who stopped the show and said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We’ve won a lot of games around here with Peewee calling first.” Then, he looked up, saw Peewee right in front of him, and broke out into a big smile.
This fall, Saban made it a point to bring Peewee up and introduce him to his guest, broadcaster Brad Nessler.
“Peewee is really, for those of you who don’t know, is really the offensive line coach,” Saban said. “We get very good coaching tips every week. … Any information that you give me that I pass along to them, I tell them, ‘This came from Peewee.’ They respect that. They respect you for all that you’ve done to help them. So we appreciate that a lot. … You know, when you help ’em get better and they respect you, then they don’t want to disappoint you. So they’re really out there playing hard for you.”
Peewee had become something of a known commodity around the program, even being called a “reluctant folk hero” by AL.com. He’s gotten to meet Saban and his wife, known as Miss Terry. He got in a car accident once on the way to the Iron Bowl and broke his leg and was unable to make it to the game, and got a shipment of gourmet apples from the Sabans. Nick Saban’s retirement stunned everybody in college football, including Peewee.
“Him and Miss Terry have always been very nice, very very kind to me,” he said the evening Saban announced he was hanging it up. “They sent flowers to both of my parents’ funerals when they passed away here in the last few years. I’ve enjoyed it. I think he did, too. I just got along good with the man. I ain’t nobody, man. I’m just a guy who loves Alabama football.”
ELI GOLD, THE voice of Alabama football since 1988, missed all of the 2022 season battling stage 3 cancer. He spent 186 days in the hospital. Upon his return in April 2023, Alabama sought to help Gold cut back on his workload, but there was one part of the job he wouldn’t give up.
“I said look, one thing I ask you not to take away from me is the Nick Saban Show,” Gold said. “It’s educational for me, stuff that I learn on Thursday that I can use on the broadcast on Saturday. But I just love being with the guy. I’m learning from him. He is a teacher.”
Coaches everywhere used to do radio shows with live callers, but they’re becoming more and more rare. Of those that do, several take pre-written submissions on social media or through email. Bob Stoops quit taking calls in 2012 after an obnoxious caller asked why he showed up and the team didn’t. Florida State stopped after an in-person guest asked Jimbo Fisher “where’s the loyalty to the program, Jimbo?” amid rumors he was headed to Texas A&M. In 2019, the “Inside Michigan Football” radio show was moved from Ann Arbor’s Pizza House, where it had been for more than a decade, to Schembechler Hall on UM’s campus where it is now closed to fans. Kirby Smart doesn’t do a radio show at Georgia.
But Gold reiterated what Peewee said, that Saban has always told him that the show was a highlight of his week. He worked the crowd, signed autographs and even invited a media member each week to sit between him and Gold and ask questions of their own.
“I have been told this by his wife, by his secretary Linda Leoni, by other people, that he genuinely loves doing that show every Thursday night,” Gold said. “I said, ‘you guys don’t need to blow smoke up my rear end’ and they said no, it’s the one day of the week he gets out of the office at a decent hour and sees people that he doesn’t work with every single day. It is just a breath of fresh air for him.”
Gold thinks he started doing the show in 1990 with Gene Stallings — which is about two years after Peewee said he started calling in to talk to Bill Curry — and said he’s always marveled at Saban’s ability to embrace the fans, even as he won his way into history.
“Look, the coach is not as tolerant for bad questions as he is for good,” Gold said. “But he will never embarrass a fan. If there’s a bad question from a media guy, he might look at him and it might be a little uncomfortable. But if Ralph from Sylacauga calls in and has a question, even if it’s not a good football question, he’ll explain it, because they were kind enough to call in.”
And Peewee never wanted to be the guy that set Saban off, so he’d focus on his responsibility during games.
“I see what happens when people ask Coach silly questions. I’ve seen it for reporters. So I tried not to ask some of them because I didn’t want him going off on me,” he said. “I tried to pay attention to the offensive line during the games. Everybody else wants to try to follow the ball.”
That’s a fan after the head coach’s heart. But that’s the level of detail that fans came with for Saban on the show.
“We don’t get, ‘What’s Miss Terry’s favorite flavor of pudding?’,” Gold said. “We get good solid football questions. And Coach respects our fans for wanting to learn.”
The fans are serious and well-behaved. There are no “Tyler from Spartanburg” incidents, like on Dabo Swinney’s show this year, where a caller suggested Swinney’s $11.5 million salary didn’t make sense given Clemson’s 4-4 record. Swinney responded by telling Tyler, “I don’t care how much money I make. You’re not gonna talk to me like I’m 12 years old. … You’re part of the problem, to be honest with you.”
Gold said like any radio show, he has a “dump” button to keep any uncouth incidents from making air. But the fans aren’t the problem.
“He’s just very loose, the coach is,” Gold said. “The only times I have had to use it was when the coach himself got a little bit blue on the air.”
It’s in those moments, when Saban is excitable, engaging and funny, that Gold said he told listeners that this was the real Saban. It’s also one of the only times Gold got the eye from Saban.
“So what he’s saying is that during the week, I’m a schmuck?” Saban asked the crowd. Gold replied, ‘Well, Coach, that’s your words, not mine.”
GOLD UNDERSTANDS THE importance of his voice to a legion of fans who build their Thursday nights and Saturdays around listening to it during football season, and he is grateful that he had a 17-year run with the greatest coach of all time. The Alabama job carries a unique burden due to its history, legacy and its role as the biggest show in the entire state, with apologies to Auburn.
“We don’t have professional sports here, nothing in the entire state,” Peewee said. “All we really have is college. This sport, football, has divided families. It’s caused marriages and it’s caused divorces. I don’t know if other people or other fan bases understand.”
So Peewee, a season-ticket holder for 30 years, always figured, if he had a question about the program, why not go straight to the man? He focused all his attention on this show and not the others where callers screamed and ranted. And in return, Saban seemed to take a shine to him.
“In the last year, [Saban’s] really loosened up even moreso in talking to people,” Gold said. “And in the case of Peewee, this year it’s been like a comedy show, the two of them, opening up the program. It’s like Laurel and Hardy talking about the offensive line.”
So imagine you’re a fan from Grand Bay getting a shipment of apples from the coach after a car accident. Imagine the coach and his wife sending flowers to your parents’ funerals. Imagine Miss Terry’s assistant walking up to you and saying, “Are you Peewee?” and handing you a football signed by Nick and Terry Saban. Imagine the Alabama coach asking you why you were at his show in person two weeks in a row but missed the week of the Iron Bowl, telling him you had to work, and having him reply, “Well, hell son, I coulda fixed that with one phone call.”
Then imagine hearing it’s all over.
“I’m not really over the shock of it,” Peewee said. “We all knew it was coming at some point in time. But I just didn’t think it would be now and I didn’t think it would be like this.”
But Peewee won’t be going anywhere. He’s ridden out the highs and lows and he’ll be ready to roll with the Tide once again.
“When Coach Stallings came in, I talked to him all the time,” Peewee said, going through the list in his head. “Coach [Mike] Dubose, Mike Shula … I actually got to go to a couple shows while Fran [Dennis Franchione] was our coach. He just bailed out on us because of the probation and then went to A&M and didn’t do nothin’ there. I never really got to talk to Mike Price because he was an idiot.”
So he has worked through his emotions this week, ultimately writing Saban a letter and emailing it to one of his connections in the athletic department. He thanked him for bringing Bama out of the “dark years” and all that he and his charity had done for the school, the program, the state and the players who played for him.
Coach I can honestly say I will miss being able to talk to you to ask you questions or have you turn it around and ask me questions about our offensive line each week on your radio show. I have looked forward to that each and every week over these last 17 years. … The Bama Nation loves you and Miss Terry very much!! Forever your friend and offensive line coach Peewee Roberts. Roll Tide!!
It’ll be hard to move forward with the next coach, but Peewee was there before Saban, and he’ll be there for Kalen DeBoer.
“It’ll be different, that’s for sure,” Peewee said. “But it will still be about the University of Alabama, right? I’ll be there for the next guy. As long as I can pick up the phone and call, I’ll be there.”
The Panthers’ odds to win the series are now -1600, adjusted from -5000 heading into Game 4. The Hurricanes’ odds have shifted to +750 (adjusted from +1500) after their win. The Panthers’ odds to win the Cup are now +105 (previously -110), while the Canes’ are now +1800. Sergei Bobrovsky is the leading Conn Smythe candidate in this series at +200, followed by Aleksander Barkov (+800).
Game 4 was the Canes’ first win in the round since Game 7 of the 2006 Eastern Conference finals against the Buffalo Sabres, snapping a 15-game conference finals losing streak. It was the longest losing streak in NHL playoff history for a team in the round preceding the Stanley Cup Final. The Hurricanes are now 4-4 all-time in Game 4s when trailing 3-0 in a best-of-seven series.
Frederik Andersen made 20 saves for his fifth career playoff shutout, his second with the Hurricanes. He joins Cam Ward (four), Kevin Weekes (two) and Petr Mrazek (two) as goaltenders with multiple playoff shutouts in Whalers/Hurricanes Stanley Cup playoffs history.
Carolina’s Logan Stankoven scored playoff goal No. 5 in the second period. He joins Erik Cole (six in 2002) and Warren Foegele (five in 2019) as the only rookies in Whalers/Hurricanes history to score at least five goals in a single Stanley Cup playoffs year.
Sebastian Aho scored an empty-net goal in the third period, his 32nd career playoff tally. That extends his own franchise record for career goals in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Panthers were shut out for the second time this postseason; both games were at home — the other instance was Game 6 of the second-round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Florida went 0-4 on the power play in Game 4, and the team is now 0-8 with the man advantage in the last two games of this series after going 4-for-5 in Games 1 and 2.
Though he hasn’t scored a goal in the past two games, Sam Bennett has a team-leading nine this postseason. That is two shy of the franchise record in a single playoff year, currently held by Matthew Tkachuk (2023) and Carter Verhaeghe (2024).
Houston Astros right-hander Ronel Blanco will have surgery on his right elbow and will miss the remainder of the 2025 season, the team announced Wednesday.
The starter had sought a second opinion after being placed on the injured list last week with inflammation in the elbow.
The Astros said Blanco — who is 3-4 with a 4.10 ERA, 48 strikeouts and 20 walks in nine starts this season — is anticipated to return at some point during the 2026 season.
Blanco, 31, is among a long list of starting pitchers on the injured list for the Astros. Right-hander Hayden Wesneski underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery last week, while right-hander Spencer Arrighetti has been out since April after breaking his right thumb in a batting practice mishap.
Houston is also without right-handers Luis Garcia and Cristian Javier, who are both still recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Blanco is in his fourth major league season, all with the Astros. In 2024, he finished 13-6 with a 2.80 ERA in 30 games (29 starts). He threw his only career complete game in his season debut on April 1, no-hitting the Toronto Blue Jays in a 10-0 win.
The Associated Press and Field Level Media contributed to this report.
The Breeders’ Cup world championships are returning to New York in 2027 at the rebuilt Belmont Park, following a massive renovation project to revitalize one of the most important horse racing tracks in the country.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, along with officials from the Breeders’ Cup and the New York Racing Association, announced Wednesday that the track on the edge of Queens and Nassau County on Long Island will stage the event in the fall two years from now.
“We wrote the governor of New York a letter in 2023 that simply said, ‘If you build it, we will come,'” Breeders’ Cup Limited president and CEO Drew Fleming said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. “And so we’re very honored to keep our word and have a wonderful Breeders’ Cup world championship here in 2027 to showcase the new development and investment in Belmont Park to our fans from across the globe.”
Keeneland in Lexington was revealed as the 2026 host.
Belmont Park was last home to the Breeders’ Cup in 2005, the fourth time in two decades after also being there in 1990, 1995 and 2001. A goal of the $455 million teardown and reconstruction was to attract the major event.
“It was always part of the plan: We weren’t going to redevelop Belmont Park without Breeders’ Cup in mind, so it was always part of the initial goals,” NYRA president and CEO David O’Rourke told the AP by phone. “Getting the championships back to New York is big from an economic point of view and probably one of the most important [things], if not the most important. It gives our trainers and horsemen a chance to compete on their home tracks. I think it’s great. It’s been over 20 years.”
Hochul said in a statement that the redevelopment is bringing thousands of jobs and $1 billion in long-term economic activity to Long Island.
“Thanks to the investments we are making at Belmont Park, the long held dream of bringing the prestigious Breeders’ Cup back to New York will soon be a reality,” Hochul said.
The Breeders’ Cup has been at a Kentucky or California track every year since 2008. Del Mar outside San Diego has it this year as a back-to-back host and for the fourth time since 2017.
Santa Anita outside Los Angeles, Keeneland and Churchill Downs in Louisville — home of the Kentucky Derby — have become the regular sites for the two-day festival featuring the best thoroughbreds in the world and tens of millions of dollars’ worth of races. It’s shifting back to the Eastern time zone for the next two years.
“California is and has always been a wonderful spot to have the Breeders’ Cup with Santa Anita Park and Del Mar, but one of the missions of the Breeders’ Cup is to grow the sport, and one of the ways we do this is hosting world championships at various venues across the United States,” Fleming said, adding that he expects the event to generate $100 million for the New York economy.
While NYRA has not announced a location for the 2026 Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown is set to return to its old home by 2027, after a multiyear stint at historic Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York during renovations.
With the Belmont at Belmont Park shifting back to an annual occurrence, it is possible the track known for greats like Secretariat and Seattle Slew rumbling down the stretch to the finish line with fans roaring might get back in a regular rotation.
“The best part about working for the Breeders’ Cup is that nothing is off the table,” Fleming said. “New York City has some of the finest accommodations and restaurants and entertainment in the world, so it’d be a natural fit that we would be at Belmont Park frequently.”