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Seconds after quarterback Diego Pavia kneeled to secure Vanderbilt’s first win against Alabama since 1984, Nick Saban appeared on the jumbotron at FirstBank Stadium.

“The only place you’re going to play in the SEC that’s not hard to play is Vanderbilt,” said the legendary coach turned ESPN personality, in a clip from his appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Sept. 20. The stadium played the clip on a loop, trolling Saban and the program he led to six national championships.

That line may have been true for Nick Saban’s Alabama. But this isn’t Nick Saban’s Alabama anymore, and that should be the most worrying part of Saturday’s stunning 40-35 loss for Tide fans. This wasn’t a one-off upset. It was a welcome back to mortal life.

NO WAY#Vandy played this quote from Nick Saban after the upset over Alabama:

“The only place that’s not hard to play in the SEC is Vanderbilt.” pic.twitter.com/QDfGufSQol

— Billy Derrick (@billyderrick10) October 5, 2024

DeBoer took the Alabama job to be The Guy After The Guy, inviting the comparisons to the greatest college football coach of all time, and he was always going to be raked over the coals by fans whenever his first loss came. But his first loss wasn’t supposed to be this, a setback arguably worse than any loss Saban suffered with the Tide.

After his first season, this never happened to Saban. He went 123-4 against unranked teams, winning 100 in a row at one point. The streak ended in 2021 against a Texas A&M team that began the season ranked No. 6.

This never happened against Vanderbilt, which scored 13 points total in four games against Saban’s Alabama teams and scored 40 against DeBoer’s first team.

But Vanderbilt didn’t fluke its way to a victory on Saturday. Alabama didn’t commit a ridiculous number of turnovers, and Vandy didn’t need an unlikely series of events. By the fourth quarter, Vanderbilt’s offensive line was pushing Alabama’s defensive front off the ball and opening running lanes.

That certainly never happened under Saban against an opponent like that.

GO DEEPER

Can Alabama recover after Vandy upset? Fate of Kalen DeBoer’s debut rests with leaders

The aura of Alabama under Saban was often enough to scare opponents into the fetal position. That mental edge always felt it was worth a touchdown or so. But here was Pavia, a former junior college quarterback at New Mexico Military Institute who starred at New Mexico State last year, who didn’t fear the Tide one bit. We’ve seen teams hang around with Bama, only to crumble. Vanderbilt never did. Future teams won’t be scared, either.

For Alabama fans who are unfamiliar with DeBoer’s career beyond his ridiculously good win-loss record, a performance like Saturday actually isn’t all that new.

In 2022, DeBoer’s Washington team lost to an Arizona State team that finished 3-9 en route to an 11-2 finish. Last year’s Huskies that played for the national title barely escaped another 3-9 Arizona State team and needed a fourth down conversion to beat a Washington State team that finished 5-7. DeBoer’s last Fresno State team went 10-3 in 2021 but lost to a .500 Hawaii team. The Bulldogs also lost to bad New Mexico and Nevada teams the year before.

This just … happens with DeBoer teams, for whatever reason. He’s 41-10 as an FBS head coach, but he loses some games to bad teams. The thought was that with such a talent advantage now, he wouldn’t in Tuscaloosa.

Yes, Saban’s first Alabama team in 2007 went 7-6 and lost to Louisiana-Monroe, but he took over a program that had gone 6-7 the year before. DeBoer inherited a team coming off a College Football Playoff appearance.

As Alabama raced to a 28-0 lead on Georgia last week, we all thought DeBoer had potentially unlocked a level of Bama that even Saban didn’t reach. But then Alabama blew that lead, only escaping with a win thanks to the heroics of freshmen Ryan Williams and Zabien Brown.

Perhaps that second half should’ve been the lesson. Now, Alabama has allowed 67 points across its last six quarters. Now, a CFP bid doesn’t feel like a guarantee with the Tide’s remaining schedule.

DeBoer’s Alabama is going to win big games, as it did against Georgia. But it’s also going to lose games that Tide fans are not accustomed to losing, and it’s that uncertainty that will hang over everything now. Nothing is sure to be like it used to be.

The good news is the chaos of Saturday didn’t only hit Alabama. Tennessee lost at an unranked Arkansas team, leaving only one undefeated SEC team (Texas). The bad news is Alabama still has to travel to Tennessee, LSU and Oklahoma and play Missouri and Auburn at home. Its margin for error to make the 12-team CFP went down significantly with this loss: The Crimson Tide’s chances to make the field dipped from 94 percent to 80 percent, according to Austin Mock’s model.

It was natural to expect a drop-off after Saban left. It actually hasn’t happened on the recruiting trail yet, where DeBoer has been proving doubters wrong. None of this means Alabama will vanish from relevancy. There’s too much talent, too much culture for that to happen.

But there’s a reason Saban was the greatest of all time. He never oversaw something like Saturday. Walking into almost every game with at least an ounce of doubt is the new normal for Alabama fans. Welcome back to feeling like everyone else.

(Photo: Matthew Maxey / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

This article is part of The Athletic’s series marking UK Black History Month. To view the whole collection, click here.

Lassana Diarra was preparing for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. 

The midfielder, who had spells with Chelsea, Arsenal, and Portsmouth in the Premier League, was coming off the back of a difficult first season with Real Madrid. That campaign, 2009-10, he had made 30 appearances in all competitions for Manuel Pellegrini’s side as they finished second in La Liga, three points behind Barcelona. They had also crashed out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage against Lyon.

Keen to put an underwhelming club campaign behind him, Diarra, aged 25, joined up with the France squad — which included Thierry Henry, Franck Ribery, Hugo Lloris, Nicolas Anelka, and Karim Benzema — in a pre-tournament training camp. Tignes was the destination, chosen for its high altitude that would mimic conditions in South Africa.

However, on May 22, 2010, his hopes of playing on the world stage were dashed.

“Further to his intestinal pain contracted on the glacier in Tignes, check-ups have detected evidence of an unpredictable illness which justifies rest for an indeterminate period,” a statement from the France Football Federation read.

Diarra’s diagnosis was later confirmed as sickle cell anaemia.

Diarra playing for Real Madrid in 2010 (Elisa Estrada/Real Madrid via Getty Images)

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) defines sickle cell disease — the most common being called sickle cell anaemia — as a group of inherited disorders that affect haemoglobin (the major protein that carries oxygen in red blood cells). In sickle cell disease, red blood cells are misshaped, typically crescent- or “sickle”-shaped due to a gene mutation that affects the haemoglobin molecule. When red blood cells sickle, they do not bend or move easily and can block blood flow to the rest of the body.

Symptoms include painful episodes called sickle cell crises, an increased risk of serious infections and anaemia — where red blood cells cannot carry enough oxygen around the body — which can cause tiredness and a shortness in breath.

According to Healthline, a provider of healthcare information in the U.S., Black people are at a much higher risk of being affected by sickle cell disease. Researchers believe the reason lies in how this condition has evolved over time to protect against malaria — most common in sub-Saharan Africa, where sickle cell is prevalent. Having the sickle cell trait helps to reduce the severity of malaria.

The sickle cell trait is found in one in four west Africans and one in 10 Afro-Caribbeans. It is also found in people who originate from the Mediterranean, Asia, and the Middle East. It is less common in white Europeans.

Sickle cell disease and the sickle cell trait differ, as people with the trait carry only one copy of the altered haemoglobin gene and rarely have any clinical symptoms related to the disease, while people with the disease carry two copies.

The American Society of Hemotology say more than 100 million people worldwide have the sickle cell trait.

Despite how common the condition is and its sometimes fatal consequences, sickle cell is still a relatively unknown condition and its effect on sporting performance is lesser known still. 

Part of the conclusion of ‘A Case Study of Two Premiership Footballers with Sickle Cell Trait’, a 2014 study conducted by the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM), stated that “further research would be necessary with a larger cohort in order to further establish the relationship between redox homeostasis (defined as the maintenance of a balance between reducing and oxidizing reactions within a cell) and sickle cell trait in athletes”.

The BJSM did not respond to requests for comment from The Athletic.

Geno Atkins, a former defensive tackle for the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals, spoke on his experience with the trait earlier this year. “I knew from my research that it would not be good for me to play in high altitude, so I prayed I wouldn’t get drafted by Denver, which is at a high altitude,” he told the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “I ended up in Cincinnati and have played at a very high level without any adverse effects of the sickle cell trait.”

He added: “Having the sickle cell trait does not exclude an athlete from participating in sports; however, the training staff and coaches need to take precautions to ensure the athlete is not put in dangerous situations.” In this case, Atkins cited an example of training in extreme heat.

Former Bengals defensive tackle Geno Atkins (Ian Johnson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Professional basketball player Billy Garrett Jr and former NFL running back Tiki Barber are two high-profile sportsmen with the disease, and wide receiver John Brown, most recently of the Buffalo Bills, possesses the trait.

Dr Mark Gillett, a consultant in sports and exercise medicine, tells The Athletic: “I’m not aware of it (sickle cell disease) in Premier League football or high-level football. I’ve not really seen it an awful lot at all. I am surprised that I haven’t. I would think that a player with full-blown sickle cell disease would find it difficult to compete at that level, just because of the physical demands of the game.

“At the same time, if you have sickle cell trait, you have that type of disease whereby extreme physical stress, altitude, or hydration can produce some symptoms. We may be seeing players with that and just not recognising it.

“Most Premier League football clubs are very diligent in the way they screen players. I think players at risk would have had their profiles done. If they have sickle cell trait, doctors would know about it. At the grassroots level, I suspect it happens a lot.”

Altitude was cited by Raymond Domenech, France’s national team manager at the time, when speaking about Diarra’s World Cup withdrawal in 2010.

“He wasn’t ready physically, he was really exhausted,” he said. “The illness was triggered by the altitude. He had predispositions that we couldn’t detect in advance. He needs a good 15 days of rest to fully recover, and he will recover, that’s for sure. It won’t have any bearing on the rest of his career but he’s not fit to play in a World Cup.” Diarra did not respond for comment when contacted by The Athletic.

Diarra, left, speaks with Domenech during France’s pre-2010 World Cup training camp (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)

When asked how top-level teams would react to a player with the disease, Gillett says: “If they did find that when screening a player, obviously they would have to group that with the other things we look for when we assess players. We would have to speak to the player about it and make sure that their treatment is optimised.

“It would be a concern for players and clubs. Particularly when you get to the end of the season when the weather gets hotter and you’re more likely to be dehydrated. Sometimes, games have more riding on them and become more meaningful. It is certainly an added stress for them. It is hard enough being a Premier League footballer without having that to deal with as well. It would be a significant worry for them.”

The extent of Diarra’s illness was later confirmed by his club at the time, Real Madrid. In a statement, they said that Diarra was “now resting at home following medical advice due to asthenic syndrome secondary to a sickle cell anaemia that will be subjected to a hematological study (the study of blood and blood disorders) in Lyon Hospital”.

Valerie Davis, a haemoglobinopathy nurse counsellor at the Sickle Cell and Thalassemia support project in Wolverhampton, wants footballing authorities to increase their efforts in raising awareness and educate people within the game about the disease.

“There needs to be sessions whereby everybody is encouraged to be screened, irrespective of ethnicity,” she says. “Often it is thought that only specific ethnicities, such as those from African and Caribbean backgrounds can be impacted by this disease. The truth is anybody and everybody can be affected. Anyone who has haemoglobin and red blood cells can be impacted by sickle cell. It is the least likely for someone who is not from those backgrounds, but it can impact everybody.

“It could be a start to encourage everybody entering the sport to be screened. They then could do more work to bring in an expert to talk about the disease. Over the years, there has been a stigma around the disease and there shouldn’t be at all. This could help highlight the importance of screening. If someone is a carrier, they are normally absolutely fine. With rest, hydration, and nutrition, somebody can live an absolutely normal life. 

“With a good lifestyle, it is a possibility that someone who is a carrier should have no issues going far in football. Even if they’re affected by the full-blown condition. I would encourage the football authorities to never reject someone based on them being a carrier of the sickle cell gene, but even with the full-blown condition with conditioning and support, it will not stop them from reaching the top.”

In 2022, former England international Emile Heskey discovered that two of his children had the sickle cell gene. He began giving blood and encouraging other Black donors to not only register but also be tested for the condition.

Emile Heskey revealed that two of his children have sickle cell trait (Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)

“We need a whole new generation of blood donors, especially people of Black heritage,” he told the Mirror. “Because they are more likely to donate better-matched blood to treat people with sickle cell disorder.

“Some patients with sickle cell rely on regular transfusions to stay alive. Giving blood is simple, easy and can save up to three lives.”

Davis shares Heskey’s sentiment in encouraging people to be tested for the disease.

“A lot of people do not know that they carry the sickle cell gene, perhaps until later,” she says. “A woman, for example, may only discover during pregnancy that she is a carrier of the gene.

“We are going all-out to educate people individually because sometimes people may know within their families that there may be a carrier but they often will deny they have it themselves. There is a stigma about the condition, so some people do not go and get screened for it.

“Unfortunately, partners decline screening and that is the sad case (that) very often we see the birth of children that are affected by sickle cell. There needs to be a lot more initiatives to highlight the importance of it. We need to explain ultimately what can happen if it is ignored.”

A treatment for sickle cell cure was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2023, with the therapy, called Casgevy, from Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics, becoming the first medicine to be approved in the United States. The same treatment was approved in the United Kingdom in November 2023, with experts calling it “a historic moment for the sickle cell community”.

However, in May 2024, the gene-editing sickle cell drug was not approved for National Health Service (NHS) use. The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) did not recommend the gene therapy treatment, saying that it required “additional data” beyond the current proposal.

In September 2024, Pfizer voluntarily withdrew large amounts of the sickle cell disease treatment medication Voxelotor, sold under the brand name Oxbryta, from worldwide markets.

However, with stories like that of Diarra’s still sporadic within football, Davis believes the condition’s unpredictability means that conversations about sickle cell within the sport must continue.

“Like many conditions, there are varying degrees of the impact that it has on individuals but ultimately, it does limit because of the unpredictable nature of the condition, what very often people can do and when they can do it,” she says.

“Particularly in sport, and football, there is a lot of training and of course, a lot of commitment required to the sport. Somebody who is impacted or affected by sickle cell cannot always commit because they simply do not know when they will be affected. It is very hard to commit to a sport, especially football.”

Although progress has been made in the fight to find a cure to find a cure for the disease and raise awareness of the condition within sport, more needs to be done.

(Top photo: Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images; design: Dan Goldfarb)

TALLADEGA, Ala. — As Denny Hamlin was digesting the reaction to his race team filing an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR this week, fiancée Jordan Fish sent him a clip from the film “Moneyball.”

“The first guy through the wall — he always gets bloody,” the actor depicting Boston Red Sox owner John Henry says in the film. “This is threatening not just a way of doing business, but in their minds, it’s threatening the game. Really what it’s threatening is their livelihood, it’s threatening their jobs. It’s threatening the way they do things.”

Hamlin found that clip relatable after 23XI Racing, the team he co-owns with Michael Jordan, joined with Front Row Motorsports on Wednesday to accuse NASCAR of being a monopoly in federal court. The reaction has been positive, Hamlin said, from people who want to see the status quo challenged — and it’s been a load off of his mind as he tries to race his way into Round 3 of the playoffs.

“It’s not like just one day we woke up and said, ‘This is going to happen,’” said Hamlin, who drives for Joe Gibbs Racing, before qualifying eighth for Sunday’s NASCAR playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway. “This has been on the plate for a while. It’s provided relief for me to put more focus on (driving) the No. 11 car and everything I have to do there since (the lawsuit) is out and now there are other people out to speak on it from the legality standpoint.”

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Why are 23XI and Front Row suing NASCAR? Here’s what you need to know

While it may have been a long time coming for Hamlin, others in the NASCAR garage were still processing the fresh news and what the outcome could mean for the future of NASCAR and its race teams.

“It’s obviously the biggest story in the sport,” said driver/owner Brad Keselowski of RFK Racing. “It’s another edition of the ‘As The World Turns: NASCAR’ soap opera. We’ll all find out together (how it turns out).”

Keselowski said he “wouldn’t expect” his team to join in the suit, a sentiment echoed by six-time champion owner Richard Childress. RFK and Richard Childress Racing both signed the 2025 charter agreement last month, which contains a provision that bans teams from taking any antitrust action against NASCAR. (23XI and Front Row refused to sign it.)

But Childress said teams were pressured to sign the new agreements, a claim which was made in the lawsuit.

“We didn’t have a choice to sign them,” Childress said. “It was just, ‘You sign it or you lose your charters.’ I couldn’t take that gamble, period. And I know a lot of owners I talked to felt the same way.”

So is NASCAR a monopoly, in his view?

“I’ll put it like this: If you want to race, you race in their park if you want to race NASCAR,” Childress said.

NASCAR again declined comment on Saturday and has yet to issue any public reaction to the suit. A court filing said 23XI and Front Row will file for a preliminary injunction next week, after which NASCAR must respond in its own filing within two weeks.

Meanwhile, drivers said they were following the story closely in the media and several acknowledged it was the most significant story to come along in NASCAR for years.

“This is huge for our sport no matter what happens,” Team Penske driver Joey Logano said. “It’s obviously big because we’ve never seen it before.”

But many said they were unsure of what the outcome would be, so they didn’t have a strong opinion one way or the other.

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“I’d like to see our sport be more prosperous,” Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron said. “In watching other professional sports and where we could be, I am excited for that. So hopefully that comes to fruition.”

23XI co-owner Curtis Polk grabbed some drivers’ attention this week after he said their salaries are a fraction of what other athletes make compared to the overall revenue of various sports leagues. Driver salaries, which are not publicly revealed, have declined precipitously from their peak in the mid-2000s, those within NASCAR have said repeatedly.

“We’re probably one of the only sports, if not the only sport, where athlete salaries have gone down in the last couple decades,” Hendrick driver Kyle Larson said. “Obviously, we would love to see it trend upward instead of the opposite. But the teams probably have to make a lot more money to make it viable to pay the people who are working for their organizations.”

23XI drivers Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick expressed full support for the actions their team owners were taking, as did Front Row driver Michael McDowell.

“Me being an advocate for change and standing up for change, that’s what I look at,” said Wallace, the only Black driver in the Cup Series. “It’s a crazy time to be in NASCAR, but I stand behind my team 100 percent, and we’ll see where it takes us.”

McDowell, who won the pole position for Sunday’s race, said he was confident there was no more lean and efficient organization than Front Row — and yet team owner Bob Jenkins still has had to put “millions and millions and millions” of dollars into the team to be even remotely competitive.

“If he has to spend his own money, there’s a problem,” McDowell said.

As for Hamlin, he was asked whether he felt 23XI’s financial commitment to the sport has been appreciated by NASCAR. He pursed his lips and paused for 10 long seconds before eventually answering.

“Probably not,” he said.

GO DEEPER

Team owners on Michael Jordan’s legal fight with NASCAR: It’s ‘going to be wild’

(Photo of Denny Hamlin during Saturday’s qualifying at Talladega: Sean Gardner / Getty Images)