Chocolate Lab
Run-loving Dino
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This guy is getting a little too big for his britches. IMO anyway.
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Payton doesn't hold back in book chronicling Saints' Super Bowl run
Story Highlights
Sean Payton tells priceless story about Bill Belichick in new book
Payton also goes into detail on the celebrating the Saints did after the Super Bowl
Payton confident vicodin scandal, Super Bowl hangover won't be issue in 2010
Of all the anecdotes and revealing behind-the-scenes snapshots that Super Bowl-winning Saints head coach Sean Payton sprinkled throughout a newly published memoir of his time in New Orleans, the one I can't get over is his detailed description of how he transformed into a certain hoodie-wearing head coach from New England one week last season.
Payton might as well have labeled that chapter "Being Bill Belichick,'' because before his 10-0 Saints were to play host to the vaunted Patriots in Week 12, their biggest measuring stick game of the season, Payton transformed himself into Belichick in order to give his team a cold-eyed assessment of where its weaknesses were -- from the master himself. Can you imagine? Think Lombardi, Landry, Noll or even Belichick himself would ever go that route? And then write about it in colorful fashion?
"Let me tell you, I do a great Belichick,'' Payton writes in "Home Team, Coaching the Saints and New Orleans Back to Life,'' which was released Tuesday, not quite five months after the biggest win in the 43 years of New Orleans franchise history. "I knew I could go into the team meeting on Wednesday and point out to the players some of the things we could improve on to win. But rather than me doing that, why not have Bill Belichick come visit our team?
"Why not give our team the chance to hear what Bill Belichick would be telling the Patriots that very morning? I could stand up there and criticize our team. But would the message be clearer if the other coach pointed out our flaws to us?''
And this wasn't some 30-second mimicking that Payton played for laughs in front of his team, either. Oh, no. He worked at it, watching film of a Belichick interview to get his tone and mannerisms down right, dressing the part, and even talking to current Saints and ex-Patriots Randall Gay, Heath Evans and David Thomas to quiz them on how Belichick would dissect New Orleans in preparing his Patriots to play that coming Monday night in the Superdome.
"I made a careful note of how he scrunched up his face and how he tilted his head,'' Payton writes of Belichick. "I became Bill Belichick. The hair greased over to the side and darkened. The blue hoodie with the New England Patriots logo. The khakis and the tennis shoes.
"To get the voice right, I went on NFL.com Tuesday night and listened to Mike Lombardi interviewing Bill. Listened three or four times until I had that flat, tightly wound, slightly psycho-sounding monotone exactly right. And we made a little film. It was me as Bill Belichick, speaking to the Patriots about all the things that sucked about the New Orleans Saints, cutting away to video of every imaginable Saints screw-up.''
Here's Payton, as Belichick, scouting the Saints: "Tell you what, guys -- it's one thing about this New Orleans Saints team. This head coach, wherever he's been, they've turned the ball over. They've turned it over in the Pro Bowl in '06, when I was (coaching against) him. They don't take care of the ball.''
And on it went, as Payton went down his roster, position by position, picking apart his team in the role of the opposing coach, for more than a half-hour, staying in character the entire time in order to give his club a different view of its own vulnerabilities. And after maybe 30 seconds of laughter at the sight of Payton as Mr. Bill, the room went dead silent as the Saints head coach delivered his searing message in the guise of the no-nonsense Patriots head coach.
The rest, of course, is history. The Saints beat the Patriots impressively, 38-17, on the last night in November, improving to 11-0 and for the first time forcing everyone to view them as a legitimate Super Bowl contender. For Payton, the exercise of channeling Belichick was a risky but successful move that ensured he had the full attention of his team as the stakes of their once-in-a-lifetime season rose with each passing week.
"When you do something like this, you step out of the norm,'' Payton wrote. "You deliver a message that will connect with the team in a much deeper and more profound way. It doesn't always work. As a coach, sometimes you swing, and maybe hit a foul ball or you miss....Then sometimes you make solid contact. And every once in a while, you just hit one right out of the park. That's the truth. And this was one of those. Hit it right out of the park!''
===============================
Payton doesn't hold back in book chronicling Saints' Super Bowl run
Story Highlights
Sean Payton tells priceless story about Bill Belichick in new book
Payton also goes into detail on the celebrating the Saints did after the Super Bowl
Payton confident vicodin scandal, Super Bowl hangover won't be issue in 2010
Of all the anecdotes and revealing behind-the-scenes snapshots that Super Bowl-winning Saints head coach Sean Payton sprinkled throughout a newly published memoir of his time in New Orleans, the one I can't get over is his detailed description of how he transformed into a certain hoodie-wearing head coach from New England one week last season.
Payton might as well have labeled that chapter "Being Bill Belichick,'' because before his 10-0 Saints were to play host to the vaunted Patriots in Week 12, their biggest measuring stick game of the season, Payton transformed himself into Belichick in order to give his team a cold-eyed assessment of where its weaknesses were -- from the master himself. Can you imagine? Think Lombardi, Landry, Noll or even Belichick himself would ever go that route? And then write about it in colorful fashion?
"Let me tell you, I do a great Belichick,'' Payton writes in "Home Team, Coaching the Saints and New Orleans Back to Life,'' which was released Tuesday, not quite five months after the biggest win in the 43 years of New Orleans franchise history. "I knew I could go into the team meeting on Wednesday and point out to the players some of the things we could improve on to win. But rather than me doing that, why not have Bill Belichick come visit our team?
"Why not give our team the chance to hear what Bill Belichick would be telling the Patriots that very morning? I could stand up there and criticize our team. But would the message be clearer if the other coach pointed out our flaws to us?''
And this wasn't some 30-second mimicking that Payton played for laughs in front of his team, either. Oh, no. He worked at it, watching film of a Belichick interview to get his tone and mannerisms down right, dressing the part, and even talking to current Saints and ex-Patriots Randall Gay, Heath Evans and David Thomas to quiz them on how Belichick would dissect New Orleans in preparing his Patriots to play that coming Monday night in the Superdome.
"I made a careful note of how he scrunched up his face and how he tilted his head,'' Payton writes of Belichick. "I became Bill Belichick. The hair greased over to the side and darkened. The blue hoodie with the New England Patriots logo. The khakis and the tennis shoes.
"To get the voice right, I went on NFL.com Tuesday night and listened to Mike Lombardi interviewing Bill. Listened three or four times until I had that flat, tightly wound, slightly psycho-sounding monotone exactly right. And we made a little film. It was me as Bill Belichick, speaking to the Patriots about all the things that sucked about the New Orleans Saints, cutting away to video of every imaginable Saints screw-up.''
Here's Payton, as Belichick, scouting the Saints: "Tell you what, guys -- it's one thing about this New Orleans Saints team. This head coach, wherever he's been, they've turned the ball over. They've turned it over in the Pro Bowl in '06, when I was (coaching against) him. They don't take care of the ball.''
And on it went, as Payton went down his roster, position by position, picking apart his team in the role of the opposing coach, for more than a half-hour, staying in character the entire time in order to give his club a different view of its own vulnerabilities. And after maybe 30 seconds of laughter at the sight of Payton as Mr. Bill, the room went dead silent as the Saints head coach delivered his searing message in the guise of the no-nonsense Patriots head coach.
The rest, of course, is history. The Saints beat the Patriots impressively, 38-17, on the last night in November, improving to 11-0 and for the first time forcing everyone to view them as a legitimate Super Bowl contender. For Payton, the exercise of channeling Belichick was a risky but successful move that ensured he had the full attention of his team as the stakes of their once-in-a-lifetime season rose with each passing week.
"When you do something like this, you step out of the norm,'' Payton wrote. "You deliver a message that will connect with the team in a much deeper and more profound way. It doesn't always work. As a coach, sometimes you swing, and maybe hit a foul ball or you miss....Then sometimes you make solid contact. And every once in a while, you just hit one right out of the park. That's the truth. And this was one of those. Hit it right out of the park!''
