Even before this year started, Sean Payton and Drew Brees had earned the respect of everyone around the National Football League.
Payton, the offensive genius who worked several places as an offensive coordinator, most recently with the Dallas Cowboys, before getting his first head coaching job with the New Orleans Saints in January 2006. His first move was to go after Drew Brees, whose contract had ended with the San Diego Chargers and had become a free agent.
Brees, much like Payton, had some tread worn off his tires before arriving in New Orleans. The only reason he was available was that, because of earlier struggles, the Chargers had chosen to draft another quarterback, Philip Rivers, in 2004, because they didn’t think Brees was going to be able to get the job done. But after two bounce-back years from the former second-round pick, Brees hit the open market with a great resume, but a right (throwing) shoulder that looked very risky.
When several teams, including the Miami Dolphins, passed on Brees, the Saints and Payton convinced Brees to come to New Orleans to ply his trade.
And with last night’s 31-17 win over the Colts, Payton and Brees proved they both belong at the very top of their respective professions.
Payton is a gambler, and he proved that at several different points in last night’s game. He went for it on fourth-and-1 from the Colts’ one-yard-line (his team didn’t get it). He went for an onside kick to start the second half, which his team did get, and completely stole momentum away from the Colts that they never really got back.
And that was the difference in the game – Sean Payton dominated his counterpart, Jim Caldwell, running circles around him throughout the game. On third-and-1 from his own 10-yard-line late in the first half, Caldwell took the ball out of Peyton Manning’s hands, and the ensuing run was stuffed short of the first down. Instead of entering the half up 10-3, instead the Colts were only up 10-6.
Then Caldwell, leading 17-16, chose to go for a 51-yard field goal with Matt Stover, a 42-year-old kicker whose days of kicking from that far away had long been over, on fourth-and-11 at the 34-yard-line. Instead of either letting Peyton Manning go for the first down or punting the ball away, pinning the Saints deep, Caldwell practically guaranteed they would get the ball near midfield. From there, the Saints quickly drove down the field, and soon took a lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.
There are already few head coaches around the National Football League that can say they led a team to a championship. But the way that Sean Payton did it, with daring risks and savvy decisions, pushes him to a level that, until now, only Bill Belichick had resided in. Now, instead of Belichick and everyone else, it’s Belichick, Payton and everyone else.
As for Brees, he has been considered one of the best quarterbacks in the league for the past several years. But, entering this year’s playoffs, the quarterbacking pyramid in the NFL in the eyes of most people probably looked something like this:
Tier I: Tom Brady, Peyton Manning
Tier II: Ben Roethlisberger, Philip Rivers, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Kurt Warner, Brett Favre
Now, after his stellar performance in last night’s game (he tied Brady’s Super Bowl record for completions with 32), Brees lifts himself into that first tier, onto the same level as Brady and Manning. As good as Brees is, and as much respect as people had for him, entering this game if you had asked people which of these quarterbacks was going to make the mistake that would cost his team the game, few would have chosen Manning to make such a mistake.
Yet that’s exactly what happened, as Manning’s errant pass late in the fourth quarter as the Colts were trailing, 24-17, and were driving deep into New Orleans territory to try and tie the score was intercepted by Tracy Porter, who returned it for a touchdown and set off celebrations on Bourbon Street that could last for weeks and weeks.
As Porter ran down the field, as Saints fans began to realize all of this was possible and, more importantly, was really happening, all around the game of football, Sean Payton and Drew Brees were elevated to the very top of their professions.
Four years ago, Payton came to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the miserable 2005 season, which saw the team traveling around the country and the Superdome with holes in its roof. Soon after, he convinced Drew Brees to become his quarterback, to forge a partnership to lift the down-trodden Saints to heights they never before had reached.
Now, four years later, they have done just that. And with that success, have proven they rightfully be placed among the best of the best.
