By Tom James
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. — New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton admits to having had a lot of influences during his coaching career.
Some names are relatively familiar — Mike Ditka, Jim Fassel, Ray Rhodes, Jon Gruden and Bill Parcells. Others, perhaps, less so — such as former Eastern Illinois head coach Al Molde and ex-Indiana State head coach Dennis Raetz.
Still, Payton doesn’t shy away from giving credit to all the coaches who have helped him land where his is now — one win away from winning a Super Bowl championship.
After earning I-AA All-American honors as a quarterback at Eastern Illinois, Payton gave the National Football League a chance.
A brief stint as a replacement player for the Chicago Bears during the 1987 NFL strike, where he came into contact with Ditka, led to chance to play in the Canadian Football League.
His first coaching job was as a graduate assistant at San Diego State. His first full-time coaching gig was a two-year stint as the quarterbacks coach at Indiana State.
After other college stops along the way — back to San Diego State, a stint at Illinois — he worked his way up to the National Football League, where he was an assistant with Philadelphia under Rhodes. Gruden was also an assistant with the Eagles at the time.
“It was my first opportunity in the NFL and it gave me a chance really to learn. Ray Rhodes was the head coach, but Jon Gruden and Bill Callahan were the guys who were responsible for me getting hired there. I learned a lot in a short period of time working with Jon and that offense. It was a foundation for me that I still hold onto,” he said Tuesday during the Saints’ Media Day at Sun Life Stadium.
“It was a little bit like law school. There were a lot of late nights and a lot of early mornings. I learned about preparation. You come out of college and you get into this league, and you realize that there’s a lot of football that you don’t know. It can be humbling, but yet it was important.”
The pairing of Payton and Gruden was a natural one. Both are workaholics, although Payton’s personality is a bit different. Think of Payton as a good-natured younger brother, quite a difference from Gruden’s “Chucky” persona.
“He’s been a big part of my development. When I got hired there in [1997], just for me to really be a blank tape is what they were looking for, for me to study and learn. It afforded me a great opportunity. He’s someone who is a close friend to this day,” the New Orleans coach said.
“He spent some time with our players in training camp. He’s got a great mind. He’s a unique guy and he’s very talented. There’s a handful of people in this profession that you try to always stay in touch with them and pick their brain.”
Bill Parcells
“I’ve said this before. There’s a lot of on-the-job training. Daily, there might be something personnel-wise from an organizational standpoint, practice schedules, training camp schedules, whatever. He knows how to win and I learned an awful lot in a short period of time, three years. I look back on my career and I was touched by so many people that were successful and they’re a big reason why I’m here right now. I’m humbled by that,” Payton said.
“When you think about that opportunity for a young guy to work for a Hall of Fame coach, it’s invaluable. Honestly, he hired me over the phone. The very last thing we discussed was salary and benefits and any of that stuff. I hadn’t even met him. All of the other things were more important to him. The football and the passion. Those were the things that he got excited about. We just drew on napkins on that flight into Dallas for about 2 1/2 hours. He did most of the drawing and I just watched and listened.”
Or the volatile Ditka
“Coach Ditka was a lot like Bill [Parcells]. He valued confrontation. When you’re young and you’re coming out of college and you come from a different system, it’s eye-opening. It’s not until you get older and wiser that you begin to appreciate why [he was like that]. That was the one thing that I look back on. It wasn’t a long period of time [that he was with the Bears], maybe a month and a half. But certainly if there was anything bugging him, you would know about it. So there was nothing ever tabled,” the Saints coach said.
“You want to be true to who you are, but it is important to address things and not table them, especially in a team environment. I think that once that’s done, I think the players, coaches and everyone involved understand that that’s just how it is. That can be healthy, rather than letting things fester or not addressing certain things at all. That’s something that I think he was very good at.”
• Williams explains comments — New Orleans defensive coordinator Gregg Williams caused a stir last week when he told a radio interviewer that the Saints were planning on laying some “remember me shots” on Colts quarterback Peyton Manning during Sunday’s game.
While he didn’t completely back down from his comments, he did try to explain them.
“In all honesty, it was really kind of a tongue and cheek thing with [former Tennessee Titans safety] Blaine Bishop. When Blaine played for me, he was that kind of player. One of the things I worried about Blaine, whenever he would get mad, for the next three or four plays he would abort all coverage, he would abort all responsibilities and just go take it out on the opponent,” Williams said during Media Day.
“I would ask him, ‘What are you doing?’ and he would tell me, ‘Giving him some remember me shots.’ We were joking about that and what he said was, ‘You got any remember me’s in you this week?’ I said, ‘Who knows? That could come up.’ It kind of got blown out of proportion. But in all honesty, every single time you play you have that. I was a little surprised that it took off, but in that respect it didn’t bother me because it’s true. I do believe that. I do believe that I want our players to play hard. I don’t want them to have any apologies.”
The Saints head coach played a joke on his assistant during the team’s breakfast Tuesday.
“The poor waiter came over to the table at brunch this morning and gave me two big jars of peanut butter, saltine crackers and a glass full of sand to wash it down with,” Williams said.
“Maybe if I took all that stuff down I might be able to keep my mouth shut and not say something at media day that will haunt him all week long like I did last week.”
