Retired University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban was the featured speaker at the Irondale Mayor’s prayer breakfast on Thursday morning, where Mayor James D. Stewart Jr. asked about how his faith affected his career as a coach.

“I think church, faith, is so important to moral development, to doing the right thing,” Saban said.

“If it wasn’t for my faith, I’m not sure that I could stand up for some of the things that we’ve stood up for through the years.”

Saban made reference to the car wreck involving former player Henry Ruggs, a wide receiver drafted in the first round by the Las Vegas Raiders in the 2020 NFL draft. Ruggs was released by the Raiders on Nov. 2, 2021, after he was in a drunk driving crash that killed the other driver.

Ruggs entered a guilty plea to driving under the influence and was sentenced to 3 to 10 years for vehicular manslaughter in 2023. He’s currently in a Nevada state prison.

Saban said people need faith to have the courage to do what’s right, and convince others to do the right thing.

“A great example of that is one of our players, I’m not going to call his name, but he had a terrible accident, had a great pro career, ran into somebody going 150 miles an hour, while he was drinking, and he had friends that could’ve told him, ‘You shouldn’t be driving; I’m not going to let you drive.’

“But why did those friends not do that? Because they were afraid of what the guy would have thought of them if they told him to do that. I guess my faith has helped me always have the courage and the confidence to tell people, ‘This is the right thing to do,’ and not really care so much about what they think of me for telling them to do what’s in their best interest, how that can impact them in a more positive way even when they were ready to make a decision that may have a negative impact on their future.

“That’s what faith has done for me.”

Stewart asked Saban what role prayer played in his life.

“The challenge to me every day is I pray not to get angry, not to get emotional, because when I do those things, I’m not a very good teacher,” Saban said. “And I want to be a good teacher every day, so that I can teach people to improve and get better, and that’s going to help them have a better chance to be successful. Coaching is teaching. Teaching is ability to inspire learning.”