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Jason Garrett: the next Sean Payton?
Posted Monday, Feb. 08, 2010
By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL
jenfloyd@star-telegram.com
Watching Saints coach Sean Payton drag and diagram and coconut New Orleans to a Super Bowl XLIV victory Sunday reminded me a lot of Betty White being pummeled in a friendly game of tackle football during commercial interruptions.
Genius ad, BTW.
I am pretty sure Betty has an ability to turn just about anything into funny right now. Including an octogenarian getting pummeled and verbally eviscerated by a teammate in a huddle.
"That's not what your girlfriend said," was White's comeback.
Anyway, as it happens in commercials, along comes a point where product must be sold and we were reminded: You are not you when hungry, you play like Betty White, thus eat Snickers. And I cannot help but think this catchy phrase, properly tweaked, once applied to Payton.
"You are not you when you are an assistant."
Or in Payton's case, you coach like Bill Parcells.
Anybody close to Cowboysland during Payton's tenure understood this was a gutsy, risk-taking, bright, inventive offensive coordinator. And he was allowed to be that guy three of every 10 plays. The other seven he lost the battle of the headphones and had to do what Big Bill wanted, so we see him now and go, "Wow, where was that guy?"
This is not another ode to what might have been. The Payton-as-Cowboys-coach ship has sailed. Really for anybody who watched Sunday's festivities from Miami and thought to yourself: "Man, I wish that guy was still coaching the Cowboys", instead of wasting angst, repeat after me:
Jason Garrett has a very good chance of being the next Payton.
In a couple of years, the Cowboys offensive coordinator is going to be winning a Super Bowl elsewhere and we'll all be whining about how he got away.
Laugh, if need be. Call me an apologist.
Just also mark my words: The Redheaded Genius is going to be a successful coach in this league. And likely not in Dallas, at this current trajectory.
For a couple of good reasons and a few nonsensical ones, we refuse to acknowledge his ability and potential at the moment. Garrett has been turned into a caricature by a lot of Cowboys media and fans. Overmatched. Unable to adjust. Not very good. Needs to be fired. Nothing more than a Jerry Jones man crush.
All of this is idiotic and ungrounded in fact actually, yet totally familiar.
Payton endured his share of dark days in Dallas. He had calls for his job. Revisionist history has many of my media brethren pretending every second of his stay was touchdowns and talk-radio segments devoted to his genius and pleas to keep him.
None of this is remotely true. A good many only appreciated his genius once said genius began coaching in New Orleans. Payton became smarter in New Orleans, much like Miami led to fondness for Tony Sparano, as did Arizona for Todd Haley.
Certainly all have become smarter than Garrett, at least by local standards where he ranks somewhere between needs to be flogged and needs to be fired, depending on the day.
The RHG bandwagon certainly has become lonely, with myself and Brad Sham and Babe Laufenberg, at least I think I saw them recently.
So let us dispense with nicknames or hyperbole this a.m. and just deal in facts about Garrett. He is a bright offensive mind. Like Payton, he's a playbook guy. He likes to devise stuff.
He is also gutsy, which serves him well except on those occasions when it gets him in trouble. And really are we praising Payton for his gutsiness if that Playmate's idiot boyfriend can recover an onside kick that lands in his hands?
Guts oftentimes require patience.
This is not to say Garrett is perfect. He has flaws. He needs to adjust better and faster. What he also needs is a teacher, a coach capable of saving him from himself.
What he has instead is Wade Phillips -- a defensive coordinator who ignores the offense. This is not a shot, just a fact.
So who reins Garrett in? Who calls him out? Who is helping develop him into a coach?
I realize develop ranks below fire/kill/demote as verbs many want to attach to Garrett nowadays. Many would welcome Betty White calling plays ahead of him. Many more want his name removed from talk about future coaches.
Just remember: You are not you when an assistant.
Unlike a lot of back-stabby assistants that have come through Valley Ranch, and Dave Campo is still removing Bruce Coslet knives from his back, Garrett learned respect for chain of command from his father. He does not agree with how Coach Wade handles any number of things, but he is not going to step on his toes, go over his head or vent to media.
Not his style.
What is his style? Bright and gutsy and kind of Payton-like. And in a couple of years if he's winning elsewhere, do not complain to me lest I have Betty respond.
Jennifer Floyd Engel, 817-390-7760
Looking for comments?
Posted Monday, Feb. 08, 2010
By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL
jenfloyd@star-telegram.com
Watching Saints coach Sean Payton drag and diagram and coconut New Orleans to a Super Bowl XLIV victory Sunday reminded me a lot of Betty White being pummeled in a friendly game of tackle football during commercial interruptions.
Genius ad, BTW.
I am pretty sure Betty has an ability to turn just about anything into funny right now. Including an octogenarian getting pummeled and verbally eviscerated by a teammate in a huddle.
"That's not what your girlfriend said," was White's comeback.
Anyway, as it happens in commercials, along comes a point where product must be sold and we were reminded: You are not you when hungry, you play like Betty White, thus eat Snickers. And I cannot help but think this catchy phrase, properly tweaked, once applied to Payton.
"You are not you when you are an assistant."
Or in Payton's case, you coach like Bill Parcells.
Anybody close to Cowboysland during Payton's tenure understood this was a gutsy, risk-taking, bright, inventive offensive coordinator. And he was allowed to be that guy three of every 10 plays. The other seven he lost the battle of the headphones and had to do what Big Bill wanted, so we see him now and go, "Wow, where was that guy?"
This is not another ode to what might have been. The Payton-as-Cowboys-coach ship has sailed. Really for anybody who watched Sunday's festivities from Miami and thought to yourself: "Man, I wish that guy was still coaching the Cowboys", instead of wasting angst, repeat after me:
Jason Garrett has a very good chance of being the next Payton.
In a couple of years, the Cowboys offensive coordinator is going to be winning a Super Bowl elsewhere and we'll all be whining about how he got away.
Laugh, if need be. Call me an apologist.
Just also mark my words: The Redheaded Genius is going to be a successful coach in this league. And likely not in Dallas, at this current trajectory.
For a couple of good reasons and a few nonsensical ones, we refuse to acknowledge his ability and potential at the moment. Garrett has been turned into a caricature by a lot of Cowboys media and fans. Overmatched. Unable to adjust. Not very good. Needs to be fired. Nothing more than a Jerry Jones man crush.
All of this is idiotic and ungrounded in fact actually, yet totally familiar.
Payton endured his share of dark days in Dallas. He had calls for his job. Revisionist history has many of my media brethren pretending every second of his stay was touchdowns and talk-radio segments devoted to his genius and pleas to keep him.
None of this is remotely true. A good many only appreciated his genius once said genius began coaching in New Orleans. Payton became smarter in New Orleans, much like Miami led to fondness for Tony Sparano, as did Arizona for Todd Haley.
Certainly all have become smarter than Garrett, at least by local standards where he ranks somewhere between needs to be flogged and needs to be fired, depending on the day.
The RHG bandwagon certainly has become lonely, with myself and Brad Sham and Babe Laufenberg, at least I think I saw them recently.
So let us dispense with nicknames or hyperbole this a.m. and just deal in facts about Garrett. He is a bright offensive mind. Like Payton, he's a playbook guy. He likes to devise stuff.
He is also gutsy, which serves him well except on those occasions when it gets him in trouble. And really are we praising Payton for his gutsiness if that Playmate's idiot boyfriend can recover an onside kick that lands in his hands?
Guts oftentimes require patience.
This is not to say Garrett is perfect. He has flaws. He needs to adjust better and faster. What he also needs is a teacher, a coach capable of saving him from himself.
What he has instead is Wade Phillips -- a defensive coordinator who ignores the offense. This is not a shot, just a fact.
So who reins Garrett in? Who calls him out? Who is helping develop him into a coach?
I realize develop ranks below fire/kill/demote as verbs many want to attach to Garrett nowadays. Many would welcome Betty White calling plays ahead of him. Many more want his name removed from talk about future coaches.
Just remember: You are not you when an assistant.
Unlike a lot of back-stabby assistants that have come through Valley Ranch, and Dave Campo is still removing Bruce Coslet knives from his back, Garrett learned respect for chain of command from his father. He does not agree with how Coach Wade handles any number of things, but he is not going to step on his toes, go over his head or vent to media.
Not his style.
What is his style? Bright and gutsy and kind of Payton-like. And in a couple of years if he's winning elsewhere, do not complain to me lest I have Betty respond.
Jennifer Floyd Engel, 817-390-7760
Looking for comments?
