The intersection of sports and politics is a dangerous place, and with a few noteworthy exceptions – Thursday night’s commencement event at the University of Alabama among them – Nick Saban has gone out of his way to steer clear of that intersection.

He’s crashed and been burned there before.

The day after the 2016 presidential election, he was asked for his thoughts on the outcome and on the notion that coaches should stay in their lane. His response, glib and irresponsible, went viral.

“To be honest with you, I didn’t even know yesterday was Election Day,” he said. “It was so important to me that I didn’t even know it was happening. We’re focused on other things here.”

The national blowback was so severe it led him to clarify his remarks three days later after a blowout victory over Mississippi State. He said he had voted by absentee ballot so that Tuesday to him was, per usual, the week’s heaviest prep day. He did not say which presidential candidate had earned his vote.

As he had explained in his original answer, “I want what’s best for our country. I’m not sure I can figure that out.”

Four years later during the long, hot summer of 2020, he didn’t concern himself with the inevitable backlash and stood with his players during the social justice movement. First, he appeared with them in a powerful video appeal for racial justice, the script written by offensive lineman Alex Leatherwood. Saban’s most memorable verse: “In this moment in history, we can’t be silent.”

He wasn’t. Two months later, he walked alongside Najee Harris, Bryce Young and hundreds of other Alabama athletes, coaches and staffers to make their own stand in the infamous schoolhouse door at Foster Auditorium. In his remarks there, Saban said, ““Today I’m like a proud parent. I’m proud of our team, I’m proud of our messengers over here and I’m very proud of the message.”

The next day’s headline read, “Nick Saban leads Black Lives Matter march in Tuscaloosa.”

In January of 2022, Saban attached his name, along with other prominent West Virginia natives such as NBA legend Jerry West, to a letter to one of the state’s U.S. senators and personal friend Joe Manchin. The letter urged Manchin to support new voting rights legislation, which ultimately was defeated in the Senate.

So perhaps Saban’s appearance Thursday in Coleman Coliseum, in which he addressed the graduates in attendance and introduced the event’s main speaker, President Donald Trump, wasn’t entirely out of character for the once famously compartmentalized former coach.

In fact, this state and this country might be a better, more united and less divided place if everyone in attendance that night heeded Saban’s advice to the Class of 2025.

The heart of his concise address, in which he spoke directly to the fresh alumni for less than five minutes, focused on “three things that always help me.”

“First of all, have compassion for other people,” he said, citing a commodity that’s in short supply. “Treat people like you would like to be treated. Treat people nicely on your way up. You might meet ‘em on the way down. So it’s nice to be important, but it’s also more important to be nice.”

There’s truth and wisdom in those cliches. Saban himself would admit that he didn’t always follow that advice, as some of his players and assistants and any number of media members through the years can attest.

“The second thing is, be responsible for your own self-determination. You gotta earn it. Don’t look to somebody else. Don’t blame somebody else. You be responsible for your own self-determination and have accountability for what your job is and what you need to do.”

That’s a worthy ideal, if not an original idea. “The Buck Stops Here” was popularized by a former president, Harry Truman, who had a sign with those words placed on his desk. Those were the days.

“The last thing is, it’s not about beating the other guy,” Saban said. “It’s not about being better than somebody else. It’s about you being the best that you can be.”

It was at that point that we learned something new about the coach who raised an already high bar for sustained football excellence in Tuscaloosa. He shared that the first speech he gave every one of his 17 Alabama football teams included paraphrasing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous street sweeper speech.

“Sweep the streets like Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel, like Shakespeare wrote literature,” Saban said. “If you do that, you accomplish the best there is in life, knowing you did your best to be the best you could be no matter what you choose to do.”

He drove that point home a thousand times during his coaching tenure with three simple words: Do your job. That’s what he did Thursday night.

He didn’t get political. He got personal. He didn’t endorse a party or an individual. He endorsed principles and values. You can take exception to his participation in the event, as many people have, but it’s hard to oppose the message he sent in his brief but direct time at the microphone.

Show compassion. Take responsibility. Do your job.

Who could vote against that?