Kiante Griffin was working the SEC Media Days security checkpoint with his grandmother when he unwittingly went viral Monday morning.
He chuckled when told his interaction with the league’s most famous recent retiree hit the expressway to internet fame because the moment was so brief. But after former Alabama coach Nick Saban went on ESPN and told the story of doing a U-turn at Griffin’s post when he forgot his credentials associated with his new TV gig, the story grew legs.
So we went on the hunt to find the full story of the alleged entry denial of the most recognizable face in college football. It ended quickly with an amused Griffin and his grandmother Sharon Paige because they had no idea Saban told the story on ESPN’s broadcast of Get up with Mike Greenberg.
“It’s a little different,” Saban said on the broadcast, which quickly caught fire on social media. “I’ve never worn a credential in my life, and was always, for 17 years, able to get into SEC Media Days without a credential. I had to go back to the room today to get my credential to get in.”
Most Popular Stories by Michael Casagrande
A grinning Griffin told AL.com his perspective of the moment.
“He came down the elevator and he knew he didn’t have his credentials,” Griffin said. “He literally looked at me, he was like ‘Oh I’m going to go up and get it.’”
Griffin was ready to let it slide.
“I was like ‘I think everybody should know who you are. There’s a credential desk right here. You can probably just get another one.’ But he ended up just going back up to his room.”
His grandmother was playing it more by the book.
“They told us everybody had to have their credentials,” she said. “Period.”
Nick Saban (center) on the SEC Network set Monday morning at SEC Media Days.Michael Casagrande | mcasagrande@al.com
Grandson and grandmother laughed when we told them it was getting some traction online. They said Saban was very friendly, far from the explosive persona seen on TV at times.
“It was quick,” Griffin said. “It wasn’t anything too wild.”
Griffin said Saban’s among his top three favorite college football coaches and he knows something about the sport. A former four-star recruit (No. 93 overall in 247Sports Class of 2012), Griffin played at Baylor before transferring to Sam Houston State. He said he was never recruited by Saban but wished he had been.
His job in security is typically spent at the Dallas Cowboys practice facility in nearby Frisco, Texas so he’s used to seeing VIPs. Saban was a little different from the other coaches being guided around the downtown Dallas hotel Monday.
“What it was, all the coaches are getting escorted around,” Griffin said. “But obviously he’s not a coach anymore so he’s not getting escorted. That’s when I said everybody probably knows who you are so you might need a badge. But he ended up just getting on the elevator.”
Saban on the SEC Network said the security staff “were just doing their job,” so it was all good even if a panelist joked about somebody getting fired.
Turns out they weren’t.
And they got a good laugh out of their small part in the latest SEC Media Days viral moment.
Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter@ByCasagrandeor on Facebook.