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Nick Saban Was Interested In Giants Job In January, 2 People Say

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New York Giants head coach Nick Saban? It nearly happened in January, according to two different people.

Comedian Tom Arnold, a friend of Giants co-owner Steve Tisch, told ESPN's Paul Finebaum that boxing promoter Bob Arum called the team while officials were negotiating to hire Ben McAdoo and said Saban wanted the job.

"So they had to stop (negotiating)," Arnold said. "This is a Saturday night. They said, 'You have until Sunday morning at 8 a.m. to say a definite yes. Tell us what he needs for money.' 'Well, he needs $10 million to start with, and this is the deal: He has to get it approved by his wife.' Well, he has to get it approved by his wife right this second because we have a coach on the string here. But if he wants to do it, it has to be right this second. So he had until Sunday morning at 8 a.m., and it didn't work out. But it was close.""

Arum confirmed to the Bergen Record that he indeed placed the call on Saban's behalf. He said the back-and-forth was initiated by his friend, Nick Khan, an agent at Creative Artists Agency.

"(Khan) says, 'Bob, I know you're a good friend of Steve Tisch. I have a colleague here at CAA,' and I forget the guy's name, 'who represents Nick Saban. And Saban would be very interested in the Giants job,'" Arum said.

"This was before they hired McAdoo, but after they announced Coughlin was leaving. So I call Steve and I say, 'Hey, Saban would be very interested. I got this call.' Then I tell him the whole story, and that Saban would be interested in the job, what a great coach he is, et cetera, et cetera."

Arum added that he doesn't remember saying Saban's asking price was $10 million, but "it was a big, big contract." Saban currently makes $6.9 million a year at Bama.

The Giants were interested if the deal could be worked out within 24 hours, Arum said. But Saban's wife eventually nixed the idea.

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"Nick (Khan) called back the next day and said, 'Call Steve. Tell him Nick can't do it. His wife loves Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She doesn't want to move, so Nick can't take the job.'"

Saban has won five college national championships -- four at Alabama, one at LSU. He coached the Miami Dolphins in 2005 and 2006, going 9-7 and 6-10, respectively. He also has served as the head coach at Toledo and Michigan State and was the Cleveland Browns' defensive coordinator from 1991-94 under Bill Belichick.

Saban, however, has consistently denied that he is eyeing a return to the NFL.

"I guess there was a time when I said, 'OK, if you win a national championship in college, because I was a pro coach for however many years I was, it's time to go win the Super Bowl. That would make my career complete," Saban told TheMMQB.com in September. "But when I did that, I found out that I missed some of these things about college that were really important to me. So you learn about yourself. I just decided when I came back here, I wasn't going to think about that anymore."

Then again, this is the same man who once said, "I'm not going to be the Alabama coach."

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