WATCH: Nick Saban delivers powerful speech about leadership, how it could've impacted Henry Ruggs III accident
Alabama head coach Nick Saban made a powerful speech to the coaches at the Alabama Football Coaches Association, which linked the lack of leadership today to the tragic events that led to the arrest of former Crimson Tide wide receiver Henry Ruggs III.
“People are more apprehensive about being leaders than they’ve ever been before,” Saban started. “Because they’re worried about what everybody thinks. Ask one of your players: ‘You gotta get up in front of a thousand people and give a speech, are you going to be nervous and anxious?’ He’s going to say, ‘Hell yeah.’ Why is that? Because you’re afraid of what everybody out there thinks of you.
“If there was a player in Las Vegas, who was drinking at 3 o’clock in the morning with his buddies, with his girlfriend, and somebody would have taken his keys away, it probably would have pissed him off,” Saban continued. “It probably would have made him mad. He probably wouldn’t have thought much of you for doing that. But would he be better off now? Or was he better off going 156 miles an hour, running his ass into somebody and killing them? And he’s in jail. And he doesn’t have a career anymore. He’s a good kid, he didn’t have one problem when he was on our team at Alabama.
“So, what kind of friend were you? What kind of leader were you when you allowed the guy to do it? But nobody wants to do that. Because they’re afraid of what someone’s going to think of them.”
Henry Ruggs facing up to 50 years behind bars
A former first-round pick for the Las Vegas Raiders, Ruggs was formally charged with five counts in the DUI crash that killed a 23-year-old woman and her dog.
Ruggs faces two felony counts of DUI causing death/substantial bodily harm, two felony counts of reckless driving resulting in death/substantial bodily harm, and a misdemeanor for possession of a gun while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The additional counts added are for Ruggs’ girlfriend who was injured in the crash.
If the court finds Ruggs guilty of all the charges, he faces up to 50 years in prison.