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Phil Sheridan | Out of a wreck, coach was born
By Phil Sheridan
Inquirer Columnist
It was 1997, and things were about to fall apart for the Eagles. The three young men working countless hours in the mildewy practice bubble near Veterans Stadium couldn't know that.
Bobby Hoying was 24 that off-season. A former star quarterback at Ohio State, he had far more sparkly credentials than the two 33-year-old coaches working with him.
Jon Gruden, a onetime quarterback at the University of Dayton, was the Eagles' offensive coordinator. Sean Payton, the team's new quarterbacks coach, had played the position at Division I-AA Eastern Illinois.
"Sean spent a lot of time hanging out with me that off-season," Hoying recalled yesterday. "We did a ton of drills in that bubble, Sean and Jon Gruden and myself. One thing I know for sure: If you're going to work for a guy like Gruden, you're going to work really hard."
Gruden escaped to the Oakland Raiders as a head coach before things got really messy. Hoying and Payton were left behind for the Eagles' 3-13 disaster of a 1998 season, and their careers were profoundly affected.
In fact, for those who were there for Ray Rhodes' final season as the Eagles' head coach, it is truly amazing that Payton, now 42, is the head coach of the New Orleans Saints, who will host the Eagles tomorrow.
It's a little like one of the iceberg spotters on the Titanic getting his own ship to command.
Not that it was Payton's fault. He had been a college assistant, serving as Marshall Faulk's running-backs coach at San Diego State at one point. Bill Callahan, Gruden's top assistant, recommended Payton to Gruden, who in turn recommended the young coach to Rhodes.
"It was my first job in the NFL," Payton said in a conference call with Philadelphia reporters the other day. "It was my first exposure to the league, and an opportunity to come in at a young age and work for what I thought was an outstanding coach, and still is - Jon Gruden. For me, it was a foundation initially to get a foot in the door and be part of an NFL franchise."
Oh, and what a franchise it was at that point. One Eagles official compared it to the slapdash culture in the movie North Dallas Forty. After Gruden left, Rhodes hired the comparatively unknown Dana Bible as his offensive coordinator. By September, Rhodes had brought in Bill Musgrave, who had scant coaching experience.
To say it was a case of the blind leading the blind would be an insult to the sightless.
By midseason, Rhodes had turned over the coordinator responsibilities to Musgrave. Bible was left hanging. Payton was shocked at being twice passed over, first for Bible and then for Musgrave.
He was only 34 at the time, but he was older than Musgrave and older than Gruden had been when Rhodes made him a coordinator in 1995.
"That served to fuel a fire for Sean," Hoying said. "I think that was a huge motivation for him in his career. The important thing is he didn't let it get him down."
Payton may have been better off. No one could really blame him for an offense that, for a while, threatened the NFL record for fewest points scored in a 16-game season. Hoying, slowed by an off-season appendectomy, also couldn't overcome the coaching quagmire and the lack of weapons on the offense.
When Andy Reid was hired to clean house in 1999, it was hard to imagine that he eventually would be standing across the field from Payton. But that happened plenty of times before this, their first meeting as head coaches.
Payton went from Philadelphia to the New York Giants, where he served as quarterbacks coach and then offensive coordinator on Jim Fassel's 2000 Super Bowl staff. Payton's career took another blow in 2002, when Fassel stripped him of play-calling responsibility.
He bounced again, this time getting hired by Bill Parcells in Dallas. Payton spent three years with the Cowboys before getting the Saints job last winter.
Five games into his head-coaching career, no one is doubting Payton anymore. His team, which went 3-13 last year, is 4-1. He has quickly built a successful offense around new quarterback Drew Brees, running back Deuce McAllister, and first-round pick Reggie Bush.
"He got himself a good quarterback," said Hoying, now a real-estate developer in Columbus, Ohio. "It usually starts with that. I'm not surprised Sean has had success, but I couldn't have predicted it would happen so fast."
Especially in New Orleans, a city devastated a year ago by Hurricane Katrina. The Saints were cast into the kind of disarray that might have scared off a lot of coaches.
The season that almost ruined Payton, 1998 in Philadelphia, turned out to be perfect preparation.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/sports/15755991.htm
By Phil Sheridan
Inquirer Columnist
It was 1997, and things were about to fall apart for the Eagles. The three young men working countless hours in the mildewy practice bubble near Veterans Stadium couldn't know that.
Bobby Hoying was 24 that off-season. A former star quarterback at Ohio State, he had far more sparkly credentials than the two 33-year-old coaches working with him.
Jon Gruden, a onetime quarterback at the University of Dayton, was the Eagles' offensive coordinator. Sean Payton, the team's new quarterbacks coach, had played the position at Division I-AA Eastern Illinois.
"Sean spent a lot of time hanging out with me that off-season," Hoying recalled yesterday. "We did a ton of drills in that bubble, Sean and Jon Gruden and myself. One thing I know for sure: If you're going to work for a guy like Gruden, you're going to work really hard."
Gruden escaped to the Oakland Raiders as a head coach before things got really messy. Hoying and Payton were left behind for the Eagles' 3-13 disaster of a 1998 season, and their careers were profoundly affected.
In fact, for those who were there for Ray Rhodes' final season as the Eagles' head coach, it is truly amazing that Payton, now 42, is the head coach of the New Orleans Saints, who will host the Eagles tomorrow.
It's a little like one of the iceberg spotters on the Titanic getting his own ship to command.
Not that it was Payton's fault. He had been a college assistant, serving as Marshall Faulk's running-backs coach at San Diego State at one point. Bill Callahan, Gruden's top assistant, recommended Payton to Gruden, who in turn recommended the young coach to Rhodes.
"It was my first job in the NFL," Payton said in a conference call with Philadelphia reporters the other day. "It was my first exposure to the league, and an opportunity to come in at a young age and work for what I thought was an outstanding coach, and still is - Jon Gruden. For me, it was a foundation initially to get a foot in the door and be part of an NFL franchise."
Oh, and what a franchise it was at that point. One Eagles official compared it to the slapdash culture in the movie North Dallas Forty. After Gruden left, Rhodes hired the comparatively unknown Dana Bible as his offensive coordinator. By September, Rhodes had brought in Bill Musgrave, who had scant coaching experience.
To say it was a case of the blind leading the blind would be an insult to the sightless.
By midseason, Rhodes had turned over the coordinator responsibilities to Musgrave. Bible was left hanging. Payton was shocked at being twice passed over, first for Bible and then for Musgrave.
He was only 34 at the time, but he was older than Musgrave and older than Gruden had been when Rhodes made him a coordinator in 1995.
"That served to fuel a fire for Sean," Hoying said. "I think that was a huge motivation for him in his career. The important thing is he didn't let it get him down."
Payton may have been better off. No one could really blame him for an offense that, for a while, threatened the NFL record for fewest points scored in a 16-game season. Hoying, slowed by an off-season appendectomy, also couldn't overcome the coaching quagmire and the lack of weapons on the offense.
When Andy Reid was hired to clean house in 1999, it was hard to imagine that he eventually would be standing across the field from Payton. But that happened plenty of times before this, their first meeting as head coaches.
Payton went from Philadelphia to the New York Giants, where he served as quarterbacks coach and then offensive coordinator on Jim Fassel's 2000 Super Bowl staff. Payton's career took another blow in 2002, when Fassel stripped him of play-calling responsibility.
He bounced again, this time getting hired by Bill Parcells in Dallas. Payton spent three years with the Cowboys before getting the Saints job last winter.
Five games into his head-coaching career, no one is doubting Payton anymore. His team, which went 3-13 last year, is 4-1. He has quickly built a successful offense around new quarterback Drew Brees, running back Deuce McAllister, and first-round pick Reggie Bush.
"He got himself a good quarterback," said Hoying, now a real-estate developer in Columbus, Ohio. "It usually starts with that. I'm not surprised Sean has had success, but I couldn't have predicted it would happen so fast."
Especially in New Orleans, a city devastated a year ago by Hurricane Katrina. The Saints were cast into the kind of disarray that might have scared off a lot of coaches.
The season that almost ruined Payton, 1998 in Philadelphia, turned out to be perfect preparation.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/sports/15755991.htm