Nick Saban learns to send his first-ever email after stepping away from Alabama after 17 seasons as his wife lays down the ‘Ten Commandments of Retirement’ – including slowing down when eating!

Nick Saban won seven national championships and nearly 300 football games during a coaching career that spanned half a century.

What he didn’t (or couldn’t) do was send his own emails and text messages. Even manageable tasks, like picking up a prescription at the pharmacy, eluded the veteran Alabama and LSU coach, who simply didn’t have the time or patience to do it himself.

“The biggest change for me as a person is that I have lived my entire life for the last 50 years in a hurry.” Saban told ESPN about the first days of his retirement since stepping down as Crimson Tide coach earlier this year. ‘It was: ‘Hurry up here.’ Hurry up to go there. Don’t be late for this meeting. You have another meeting in an hour. What are you going to tell the staff? What are you going to tell the team?

‘I mean, it was just deadline after deadline after deadline. Even when I was driving to the lake to go on vacation, I was in a hurry, and for what? But that’s how you were born.

To offer him some guidelines on his new lifestyle, his wife Terry wrote him a letter containing the ‘Ten Commandments of Retirement’.

And the first results have been encouraging. Whereas he once had staff handling his text messages and emails for the technophobic coach, Saban is now capable of doing all of those things.

“He’s actually texting and reading his own emails and he sent his first email,” Terry, Saban’s wife of 52 years, told ESPN. ‘She even made her first trip to the pharmacy to pick up his first prescription. In fact, he’s quite proud of himself.

Best of all, Saban has finally learned to take his time while eating, which is a thoughtful practice for any dining companion.

“So at our first dinner at home, he brought me his plate with half a pickle and said, ‘Be polite!'” Terry said.

(Right) Terry Saban, wife of Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban (left), in 2016

Saban is not completely retired. He plans to join ESPN this football season as an analyst for College GameDay, a move host Rece Davis calls a no-brainer.

“I think it will really add an extra dimension to our show and certainly a different perspective from someone who has accomplished what he has accomplished as a coach over the last few years,” Davis said last month.

“The only thing I think people have seen glimpses of, but I think they’ll see a lot more, besides a remarkable vision of X’s and O’s, they’ll see that this guy has a very good sense of humor,” Davis said. “Now it’s a dry, understated wit and a groundbreaking wit, and I think it’s going to work perfectly on that set.”

As for his proximity to the Crimson Tide, Saban will maintain an office at Bryant-Denny Stadium but has promised not to interfere with Kalen DeBoer’s team.

“I want to draw as little attention as possible to my presence here,” Saban told ESPN. ‘That’s why I want to be supportive. I want to be helpful, but I don’t want to be looking over anyone’s shoulder.