Nick Saban is advocating that NFL teams strongly consider QB Tua Tagovailoa. Dolphins fans are advocating that Saban mind his own business.

Dolphins fans were upset with Nick Saban when he did an abrupt about-face and loaded up the moving van for Alabama, but the passage of 13 years has allowed South Floridians to forgive and forget. Their favorite college team no longer is whoever’s playing the Crimson Tide, and they no longer delight in inverse proportion to every tantrum Saban throws on the sidelines.

Oh, wait …

“Biggest - - - hole in franchise history.”

“Moron.”

“Satan.”

“#snake #weasel.”

“Traitor.”

Those were just some of the retorts posted by readers in response to a column on Saban’s endorsement of his quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, for the upcoming NFL Draft.

Yes, those were some of the comments.

The nicer ones.

There are plenty of others that not only aren’t suitable for publication here, they’re also grayed out on Facebook. Do you have any conception how far one must go before Mark Zuckerberg throws a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct?

Maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that South Florida still hates Saban. He did, after all, take a boatload of money from Wayne Huizenga to coach the Dolphins before going 15-17 in two seasons. After denying he could pinpoint Tuscaloosa on a map, he was immediately outta here with all the grace of the Colts pulling out of Baltimore.

You might say 13 years is a long time.

Dolphins fans call BS. As in, “But it’s Saban.”

“LOL!!!” @dolphinsgm2019 wrote on Twitter (clearly not wishing to wait for the story to be posted on Facebook). “Miami listen to the biggest - - - hole in their franchise history? Remember? ‘I am not leaving the Dolphins’ Trust this moron? #snake #weasel.”

Greg Setzer wrote that Saban “is the devil,” which, relatively speaking, qualified as being nice. Several readers opted for the old standby, “Nick Satan.”

Not only is there no sympathy for the devil, but some apply guilt by association to Tua, too.

“Ok I was iffy on Tua before,” James Mira wrote. “But if Saban says he’d be good for us then I definitely don’t want him now.”

Many fans cited the disastrous decision to go with Daunte Culpepper over Drew Brees, which occurred under Saban’s watch. Some fans came to Saban’s defense, saying he preferred Brees but was overruled.

Corey D. Carlson wrote, “I have a screen shot of all of you” that he plans to post when Tagovailoa leads the Dolphins to the playoffs within a year or two.

Stephen Ecker responded by awarding Carlson “the grand prize for the dumbest thing ever said on the internet for the year 2020.”

But was it? Or does the honor go to the column itself?

“Sabin (sic) and Dolphins should NEVER be mentioned in same story,” Larry Collier wrote. “He deserted the club!”

Frank Martin also seemed to support legislation banning the use of “Saban” and “Dolphins” in the same stratosphere.

“If you EVER cite Saban's opinion on anything Dolphins, you lose credibility in my eyes,” Martin wrote. “His recommendations are to be used as a guideline on what NOT to do.”

Then there’s Rory Colon: “Nobody cares what Saban says and nobody cares what you say either!”

We would say that on this note, we’ll close the discussion. But since nobody cares …

hhabib@pbpost.com

@gunnerhal

To sign up for a free Dolphins newsletter, click here.