Major gambles paid off for conference finalists
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He is the NFL's most rabid Kenny Chesney fan, a coach who looks to the country singer for musical inspiration and social titillation.
Yet on the fateful day a little more than a year ago when he made one of the best and boldest moves of the 2009 offseason, New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton seemed to be channeling Kenny (The Gambler) Rogers.
Frustrated by three years' worth of defensive inadequacy and eager to hire Gregg Williams as his new coordinator, Payton was on the verge of losing his man to the Green Bay Packers' Mike McCarthy, who'd offered a larger financial package. Apparently unwilling to push Saints owner Tom Benson to continue the bidding war, Payton made an executive decision to increase Williams' first-year salary by $250,000 – out of his own bank account.
When Williams, who was unaware that Payton had ponied up the extra cash, agreed to the deal, Payton essentially put a quarter-million dollars' worth of chips on the roulette table and bet it all on black. Needless to say, the bet paid off in a big way.
With the rejuvenated, Williams-led defense complementing Payton's aggressive, innovative offense, the Saints are having the dream season their fans have envisioned since the then-rookie coach led them to the 2006 NFC championship game. That year, as a road underdog, New Orleans lost to the Chicago Bears; on Sunday evening, the top-seeded Saints are favored to defeat the second-seeded Minnesota Vikings at the Louisiana Superdome and advance to their first Super Bowl.
As with the Indianapolis Colts and New York Jets, who meet in the AFC title game Sunday afternoon, the Saints and Vikes took big offseason risks which helped facilitate their success. In Payton's case, bringing in Williams wasn't merely a monetary gamble. Armed with a notoriously big personality that has caused clashes with superiors at some of his previous stops, Williams could have annoyed his new boss and been seen as a challenge to Payton's authority.
Were Payton one of those insecure, "one voice" coaches, such a hire would have been inconceivable. Yet even though one of his mentors (Bill Parcells) was the ultimate control freak, Payton felt comfortable bringing in a boisterous dynamo who can best be described as the defensive version of him.
We now know that Payton's pay-for-play parlay was one of the five shrewdest gambles of the '09 offseason, though that didn't become clear until the drama played out over the past five months.
Before the games began, we might have looked to the Bears' trade for Jay Cutler(notes), the Washington Redskins' landing of Albert Haynesworth(notes) on the first day of free agency, or even the Philadelphia Eagles' signing of Michael Vick(notes) as likely candidates for this honor.
At midseason, the Denver Broncos' firing of longtime coach Mike Shanahan – and owner Pat Bowlen's decision to replace him with young Josh McDaniels – certainly would have made a preliminary list. Now? Not so much.
And as recently as two weeks ago, we'd surely have included Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones' release of Terrell Owens(notes) and McCarthy's move to hire Dom Capers after losing out on Williams (and his switch to a 3-4 defensive scheme) among the offseason's most daring decisions.
Instead, it's all about Payton and Peyton. And, of course, there are a whole lot of Brett Favre's(notes) fingerprints – the team he left, the team he saved – on the roulette table:
It's been a glorious run for Favre and the Vikings so far.
(Paul Sancya/AP Photo)
• Zygi Wilf and Brad Childress groveling for Favre's services: A lot of us cringed as the Vikings' owner and head coach courted Favre through months' worth of seeming indecision. There were reports that the deal was off, some fueled by Favre's own statements, before the soon-to-be-40-year-old future Hall of Famer rekindled the romance with the Packers' bitter rivals. On Aug. 18, Childress picked up Favre at the airport, drove him to the team's facility in his Escalade and heard the future Hall of Fame quarterback repeatedly refer to him as "Chilly." Favre faced a semi-skeptical locker room and, for the season's first two games, expended the bulk of his energy handing the ball to Adrian Peterson and watching him run through tacklers. Then, in a Sept. 27 game against the San Francisco 49ers, the Minneapolis magic began: Favre threw an oh-no-he-didn't, third-down touchdown pass to Greg Lewis(notes) in the back of the end zone with two seconds remaining to give the Vikes a 27-24 victory.
From that point on, the Vikes were his team. He carried the team in a pair of emotional victories over the Packers and an easy NFC North title. On the way to the second overall seed, Favre even flexed on Chilly, going public with a power struggle and essentially establishing himself as el jefe of the Vikings family. (In the end, Childress – who got a lucrative contract extension during the season – couldn't complain that much.) Then, in the team's playoff opener, Favre threw four touchdown passes in a 34-3 thrashing of the Cowboys. Even if he stinks it up against the Saints in the Superdome on Sunday – don't bet on it – and turns out to be a one-year rental, Favre will have justified the franchise's sycophantic pursuit. He has provided tons of fun in Minnesota this season, and it won't soon be forgotten.
• Woody Johnson and Mike Tannenbaum firing Eric Mangini and hiring Rex Ryan: It's easy to forget that Favre factored into the Jets' makeover, too. His flameout in last season's final five games – which he later revealed was triggered by a biceps injury – kept New York from making the playoffs and compelled Tannenbaum, the team's GM, and Johnson, the owner, to make a change. Out went Mangini after a 9-7 season, his second winning campaign in a three-year tenure, and in came Ryan, the Ravens' brash defensive coordinator. Ryan was considered a risk: His father, Buddy, was a controversy-causing loudmouth who hadn't backed up his immense success as a defensive coordinator in head-coaching stints with the Eagles and Cardinals. Rex was viewed as, well, Son of Buddy. When he began talking smack shortly after taking the job, calling out New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and Miami Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder(notes), owners and front-office executives around the league cringed. Well, guess what? Ryan did it his way, engineering a pair of impressive playoff upsets, and now he has the Jets one game from their first Super Bowl in 41 years. Uh, yeah – decent hire.
• Tannenbaum and Ryan swinging the draft-day trade for Mark Sanchez(notes): Ryan could have done the Childress thing and begged Favre to come back and play another season. Instead, he and Tannenbaum set their sights on a young passer whose coach at Southern California, Pete Carroll, had publicly decried the senior-to-be's decision to declare for the draft. Getting Mark Sanchez with the fifth overall pick was an intricate, tenuous endeavor that Ian O'Connor of the Bergen Record detailed masterfully in a recent column. It required Ryan's persuasiveness (convincing safety Abram Elam(notes) to sign a consent form to make the trade possible) and Tannenbaum's chutzpah (swinging the deal with Mangini, the onetime close friend he'd fired four months earlier who was now the Cleveland Browns' chief decision-maker), and it took two picks and three players to make it happen. Even riskier, Ryan made Sanchez his starter from the outset and stuck with him even as the rookie hit a rough stretch. Sanchez still has a lot of growing to do and could become the star quarterback the franchise has searched for since Joe Namath left. In the meantime, the kid has been good enough to win with now – in two playoff games he has completed 62.3 percent of his passes, thrown just one interception and been sacked only once.
The Colts have had a smooth transition under Caldwell.
(Michael Conroy/AP Photo)
• Jimmy Irsay and Bill Polian putting their trust in Jim Caldwell: This decision was made the previous year, when it became clear that head coach Tony Dungy would probably step aside after another season or two. Irsay, the team's owner, and Polian, the Colts' president, not only stuck with the plan but also allowed Caldwell to make some significant changes, replacing defensive coordinator Ron Meeks with Larry Coyer and special-teams coordinator Russ Purnell with Ray Rychleski. Given Dungy's aversion to staff upheaval, this was rather astonishing – especially given the fact that Caldwell had never been an NFL coordinator. His previous head coaching experience came at Wake Forest, where he had seven losing seasons in eight campaigns and had a 26-63 overall record. Yet Irsay and Polian felt he was the man to lead the Colts, and with good reason: He had the ideal, even-keeled temperament to deal with the awkwardness of being the anointed successor while still on Dungy's staff (it might not sound all that complicated, but things didn't go so smoothly in Seattle as Jimmy Mora waited to succeed Mike Holmgren). He also had the trust of the most important person in the Colts' universe, Peyton Manning(notes), having grown close to the passer while serving as his quarterbacks coach from 2002 to 2008.
When two longtime coaches (offensive coordinator Tom Moore and offensive-line coach Howard Mudd) temporarily stepped down in the spring because of a change in the team's retirement-benefits policy, some of us predicted that the disruption to Manning's sense of order would cause the Colts to struggle. Oops … Caldwell won his first 14 games, and the only thing Indy fans have questioned during his tenure was why he chose to pull his starters out of a meaningless game against the Jets, possibly costing his team a chance to go undefeated. If he gets Indy back to the Super Bowl – something Dungy did only once in an NFL-record 10 consecutive playoff appearances for the Bucs and Colts – there will be no further questions. Either way, Caldwell's a keeper.
TAKE IT TO THE ATM
Manning will succeed where Philip Rivers(notes) failed, patiently exploiting the Jets' defense to lead Indy to a comfortable victory in the AFC championship game. … Drew Brees(notes) will stake the Saints to an early lead over the Vikings, forcing Brett Favre to play catch-up – and a late Darren Sharper(notes) interception will seal New Orleans' victory and first-ever trip to the Super Bowl. … Against all logic, there will be a work-stoppage in 2011, as owners and players display a maddening inability to divvy up the fattest, steadiest stream of cash in American sports.
PLEASE, BOSS, SEND ME TO …
New Orleans, one of my favorite places on earth, where I can twist the heads off of boiled crawfish and suck down the juice, consume Abita Turbo Dogs, listen to killer music and watch what should be a hell of a football game between the Saints and Vikings.
LIES, LIES, LIES
1. In an effort to secure a stadium naming rights deal, Jacksonville Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver reached out to an obscure Missouri clothing company.
2. Told that Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis(notes) had used an unflattering adjective to describe him, Patriots wideout Randy Moss(notes) replied, "I slouch when I want to slouch, homey."
3. To celebrate newly hired Jaguars assistant Joe (Happy Meal) Cullen's return to the NFL, Favre led the Vikings' locker room in yet another butt-slapping rendition of this "American Idol" sensation.
OXYGEN-DEPRIVED THOUGHT FROM ABOVE
Brian Billick clearly is a man who enjoys the sound of his own voice (hey, I can relate), but that doesn't mean he isn't right when he questions how Buffalo Bills general manager Buddy Nix came to hire Chan Gailey as head coach without even giving the former Ravens coach a call. If Billick really wants to vent, he can always go the billboard route.
LET'S DO SOME DON JULIO SILVER SHOTS FOR …
The voters of Massachusetts, for electing Republican Scott Brown to fill the Senate seat formerly occupied by the late Ted Kennedy. How's that? Yes, I am the same unabashed lefty I've always been, and no, I have no love for Brown's political views. But here's the deal: After watching a year's worth of wimpy governance, I'm hopeful that this will be the impetus for President Obama to offer the type of bold, decisive leadership of which I know he's capable. For example, instead of trying to cultivate a 60-40 majority in the Senate for his health-care proposal, I'd like to see Obama settle for 51-49 or better and dare the Republicans to filibuster, as if reading the phone book on the Senate floor would somehow resonate with the American public. I don't recall Obama's predecessor concerning himself with gaining filibuster-proof majorities, and I don't see why it should be a priority for him. Yo, Mr. President – tell the people and their elected representatives what initiatives you want to pass, start flexing those majorities you have in both legislative branches and put the onus on the Republicans not to stand in the way of popular change. Or, you know, get even more careful, and alienate the progressive left even further.
THIS WEEK'S PROOF THAT CAL IS THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE
Watching your favorite team pull out a close game is such a thrill; blowouts are just plain niiiccccceeeee. Led by 21 points from senior guard Patrick Christopher – in the first half – the Golden Bears destroyed the Oregon Ducks 89-57 at Haas Pavilion Thursday night to move back into a first-place tie in the Pac-10. The Bears (12-6, 4-2), tied with Arizona State atop the conference standings, host Oregon State Saturday. The good times on the hardwood Thursday extended to The Pit in Eugene, Ore., where the young Cal women defeated the Ducks, 72-62. Senior guard Alexis Gray-Lawson led the Bears with 19 points while guard Eliza Pierre (seven points, nine rebounds, five assists, five steals, one block) was among the many freshmen that shined for Cal, which got back into the thick of the conference race with its third consecutive victory. Joanne Boyle’s Bears will try to keep it going against the Beavers in Corvallis Saturday night.
On Friday, Cal's defending national champion women's swim team (currently ranked fifth, but don't sweat it; coach Teri McKeever will have them in the mix at NCAAs once more) hosts Arizona State at Spieker Pool, in preparation for a Saturday showdown against No. 2 Arizona, where seniors Lauren Boyle, Alexandra Ellis, Courtney Eronemo, Blake Hayter, Amanda Larson and Heather White will be honored in their final home meet. (The Bears' third-ranked men's team will concurrently host the Sun Devils and fourth-ranked Wildcats on those respective days.) After having his five-year streak of national championships broken in the title match against BYU last spring, Cal rugby coach Jack Clark apparently has his lads ready to play in 2010: The Bears (9-0) opened their season by edging Humboldt State, 152-0, and have outscored opponents by a cumulative score of 501-9. Next victim: Sacramento State, this Saturday at Witter Field. Finally, one of my old college classmates, former Redskins linebacker Ken Harvey, was one of many noble volunteers who joined the relief effort in Haiti, with an assist from 'Skins owner Daniel Snyder.
YAHOO! SEARCH WORDS OF THE WEEK
ROLLIN' WITH THE ROYALS
The Reading Football Club continued on its simultaneous path toward FA Cup glory, and Football League Championship ignominy, dropping a 2-1 decision at Nottingham Forest last Saturday that dipped the Royals below the relegation line. With 21 games remaining, the Royals need to jump at least one team to avoid being dropped to League One next season. Trailing 2-0 at halftime, Reading rallied and nearly earned a draw against Forest, which came into the match on a 17-game unbeaten league run. Forest keeper Lee Camp made some brilliant saves, twice denying Gunnar Thorvaldsson from close range in the Icelandic striker's Royals debut and stopping Brian Howard's penalty kick, before Jimmy Kebe scored on a late header off Howard's cross. Ah, but Reading's FA Cup run continues Saturday with a fourth-round match against Burnley at Madejski Stadium. Burnley, which got promoted from the Championship after last season (defeating the Royals in a playoff on the way), is 15th in the Premier League table.
LYRIC-ALTERED SONG DEDICATION OF THE WEEK
For much of its 35-year history, the Louisiana Superdome has been regarded by Saints fans as the NFL's version of a house of ill repute. Now, as the embattled building prepares to host the most important game in franchise history, New Orleans owner Tom Benson is singing a different tune. Here's the Crescent City's dorkiest dancer with his take on a classic folk ballad (he's a fan of the Animals' version). That's Benson's granddaughter, Saints executive VP Rita Benson LeBlanc, handling the Alan Price organ riffs, to the tune of … well, you know what song it is.
There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Superdome
And it's been the ruin of many a Saints team
It's our unhappy home
Jim Mora made the playoffs
Haslett had one good team
Peyton's dad was a scramblin' man
Down in New Orleans
Now the only thing a Saints fan needs
Is gumbo and a bunk
And you know it's true that win or lose
On Sundays he'll be drunk
(Organ solo)
Brad Childress tell your Vikings
That a new day has begun
This Sunday you'll feel our misery
In the House of Sean Payton
Well, I got one foot on the FieldTurf
I'll do the Benson Boogie
Cause this once sad-sack football team
Is goin' to Miami
Well, there is a house in New Orleans
They call the Superdome
And it's where I've thrown up many a po' boy
Thank God it is my home
