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Thread: Pro. Jake Delhomme

  1. UL Football Hollywood couldn’t have scripted better story

    A quick quiz for die-hard Carolina Panthers fans who have been following the team for, oh, the past 20 days or so:

    Question: When quarterback Jake Delhomme made his first appearance in a regular-season game, who informed his teammates he would be coming in?

    Answer: Nobody.

    It missed being one of those storybook entrances by about a mile, not that a lot of fans were in their seats to witness it anyway. The opening day crowd at Ericsson Stadium was less than a sellout, and more than a handful of fans were still milling about the concession stands when Delhomme was summoned into the game.

    At halftime, with the Panthers trailing Jacksonville 14-0 after an uninspiring 4-for-10 effort for 19 yards by veteran starter Rodney Peete, offensive coordinator Dan Henning told Delhomme he’d play the second half.

    Nobody mentioned it to the rest of the team.

    By the time Delhomme got his chance, Jacksonville had taken the third-quarter kickoff and turned it into a field goal for a 17-0 lead, which happened to be a deficit larger than any Carolina had overcome in franchise history.

    Welcome to the Panthers, pal.

    Delhomme came running into the huddle clapping his hands, and his teammates looked at him as if to say, “Hey, look who’s here.”

    “I didn’t even know he was coming in until I looked up and saw him running on the field,” rookie tackle Jordan Gross said. “It was very calm at halftime; we just talked about a bunch of little things we were doing — or weren’t doing, I should say — and we all knew we had to pick it up.”

    Delhomme’s entrance is generally credited as the point at which the Panthers picked up their season. The new quarterback’s first words to his teammates were profane, according to wide receiver Steve Smith.

    Delhomme, generally reticent when it comes to discussing himself, was in an expansive mood recently when Chris Collinsworth spent some time with him in a one-on-one interview for HBO.

    “I can remember telling the guys ’one play at a time, just one play,’ “ Delhomme said. “I can remember going up to the line thinking, ’This is it, this is what you always wanted.’ “

    Maybe he wasn’t ready before that moment, or maybe he was ready all along. It doesn’t really matter because when his time came, he grabbed hold and never let go.

    “We were down 17-0 to Jacksonville and I’ll never forget it,’’ Panthers tight end Kris Mangum said. “He comes in, slapping people on the helmet, high fiving, and he says, ’Let’s roll.’ I was telling someone you can’t coach that ... There are certain quarterbacks who walk into a room and people rally around them. He’s definitely our guy.”

    On the field, he’s exhibited the cold, calculating instincts of a veteran. This was a guy who had been cut five times in different situations, couldn’t start on an NFL Europe team where he played behind somebody from indoor football named Kurt Warner, then later starred in the spring league that serves as a kind of junior varsity for NFL aspirants.

    “(In NFL Europe) I’m playing behind an Arena League quarterback,” Delhomme said. “Kurt Warner, he played at Northern Iowa, then he started playing and he did well. I’m thinking, ’How am I going to make a roster if I can’t even play in NFL Europe?’ I’m going to camp in New Orleans thinking ’I have no shot to make this team.’

    “I got a little playing time,” he said. “Next thing you know I was on the roster and the next year Kurt Warner was dominating in the NFL and the confidence started to grow. You know, it’s ’maybe I can’ at that point; you just keep working and who knows what can happen?”

    He chose Carolina over Dallas this past offseason. In Carolina, he liked his chances of beating out Rodney Peete and was especially impressed by the spunk the Panthers showed in the ’02 finale, when they beat the Saints to finish 7-9 a year after going 1-15.

    “That stayed in my brain all offseason,” he said.

    The rest of the story

    Gannett News Sevice
    Lafayette office


  2. People Delhomme carries Cajuns’ Super torch

    Four previous University of Louisiana alums performed in NFL’s spotlight event.

    BREAUX BRIDGE — Jake Delhomme isn’t the first Ragin’ Cajun to spice up a game known more for its Roman numerals than its Coliseum-caliber clashes.

    Four other former UL football players have appeared in the Super Bowl, including Brandon Stokley, who caught the first touchdown of the 2001 Super Bowl for the Baltimore Ravens, a catch that spurred the team to a 35-7 victory over the New York Giants.

    Louisiana’s Brian Mitchell returned punts and kickoffs for the Redskins in Super Bowl 1992. Place-kicker Rafael Septien scored seven points for the Cowboys in 1979. Fellow alum Randy McClanahan, a linebacker and down lineman, played for the 1980 Oakland Raiders but did not record a tackle or turnover in the 1981 Super Bowl.

    Combined, Louisiana alums have gained 68 yards from scrimmage, scored 13 points and forced no turnovers in the NFL championship game — not exactly Hall of Fame numbers. But one long Delhomme pass to favorite Carolina Panthers wideout Steve Smith could wipe out the first stat.

    Sonny Charpentier, who was Delhomme’s offensive coordinator during his last two years at Teurlings Catholic, said that if the Breaux Bridge product is going to deliver in Houston, site for this year’s Super Bowl, it will be because of intangibles.

    “I think Jake is intelligent enough to know his limitations,” Charpentier said. “To be successful you need to know what you can’t do ... as well as what you can do.”

    Charpentier suggested that Delhomme will not toss the ball up blindly hoping for a receiver to come down with it nor will he throw carelessly into double coverage.

    If he uses his head, Delhomme could pull off one of the Super Bowl’s biggest upsets, he said.

    “He just has ‘it.’ I don’t’ now what ‘it is, but it’s something you’re born with,” Charpentier said. “He knows how to win.”

    Today, Delhomme gets his chance for a ring and to prove he has the mettle to play the game’s most demanding position in the most demanding environment. Stokley says he’ll watch the game, but only because Delhomme is playing.

    Brandon Stokley

    Stokley, who helped Delhomme rewrite the record books at UL during their two seasons together, has something his quarterback friend does not yet possess: a Super Bowl ring.

    He said Delhomme should cherish the opportunity to grab one.

    “You have to realize that this might be a once in a lifetime thing. It doesn’t happen too often you get to go to the Super Bowl,” Stokley said.

    He offered his friend some advice earlier this week on how he might acquire one.

    “I talked to him after the New England game, and the one thing I told him was just to have fun, to enjoy the moment and soak it all in,” Stokley said. After the first snap, he says, it’s just another game.

    He should know.

    Eight minutes into the 2001 Super Bowl, Stokley hauled in a 38-yard touchdown from Ravens quarterback Trent Dilfer that set the tone for the game.

    Stokley remembers his highlight-reel catch well.

    He was lined up to the right of Dilfer for a play called the “double pump.” He had the option to either run straight down the field or break to his left, depending on the coverage. When the Giants misread the play, leaving Stokley wide open, Dilfer hit him in stride for a touchdown.

    “I couldn’t have asked for a better pass,” said Stokley, who almost instantly pointed to the right corner of the end zone, acknowledging his family.

    “I knew they were there so it made it a little more special,” he said.

    Stokley, who these days catches passes from Peyton Manning at Indianapolis, said the Super Bowl touchdown and the victory were great, but the celebration afterwards was equally rewarding.

    “My most fond memory was after the game at the Super Bowl party, just being able to have a good time with my family, to celebrate with them,” he said.

    Before Stokley and his Raven teammates popped the corks on their champagne, it had been nine years since a UL alum had played a down in the big game.

    Brian Mitchell

    In 1991, University of Louisiana alumnus Brian Mitchell was in his second year with the Washington Redskins as a return specialist.

    Mitchell, a workhorse back in college, shined as a return specialist, gaining more than 1,100 yards on kickoff and punt returns during the regular season and returning two kickoffs for touchdowns.

    But Mitchell’s lone Super Bowl was relatively unproductive. He caught two fair catches on punts and ran one kickoff back for 16 yards. But the Redskins did just fine in the 1992 Super Bowl, trouncing the hapless Buffalo Bills 37-24.

    Mitchell, now 35, just finished another 1,000-plus year with the New York Giants. But Mitchell never did get back to the big game, falling one victory short while playing for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2001 and 2002.

    The rest of the story

    Lou Rom
    lrom@smgpo.gannett.com


  3. UL Football Quarterbacks prove experts wrong again

    How could every single team in the league miss it?

    It’s a question I’ve asked myself many times over the years.

    This year’s starting Super Bowl quarterbacks are just the latest examples of how little the supposed football experts really know about talent.

    Jake Delhomme wasn’t drafted at all. In fact, it was just a couple years ago that he was back home in Breaux Bridge wondering if he’d ever get a chance at NFL stardom. The season had begun and there was no takers.

    It’s good a thing that someone in the New Orleans Saints’ organization thought enough of Delhomme to at least let him get a foot in the door.

    When apparently no other team in the league thought Delhomme was even a third-string NFL quarterback, the Saints eventually gave him the chance to prove that he was a very capable back-up.

    Carolina then gave him the opportunity to be a starter. Before we praise the Panthers’ talent evaluation too quickly, however, let’s not forget that Delhomme didn’t actually win the training camp battle with Rodney Peete and Chris Weinke entering the opener.

    Give coach John Fox credit, though, for having a quick hook and giving Delhomme the reins before the season opener was over. And, as they say, the rest is history.

    He may already own a Super Bowl ring on his finger, but Tom Brady’s story isn’t enormously different. While Delhomme wasn’t given the chance to be a full-time starter battling Kurt Warner in NFL Europe, Brady didn’t even win the starting job in college, splitting time at Michigan with Brian Griese, who actually got more snaps than Brady.

    Give New England credit for drafting Brady and eventually promoting him over a first-rounder Drew Bledsoe, who had already taken the Patriots to a Super Bowl.

    But don’t glorify their front office too much, either. After all, Brady was drafted 199th overall in the sixth round. New England actually selected such future Hall of Famers as Boise State tight end Dave Stachelski and Missouri defensive tackle Jeff Marriott in the fifth round, not to mention Michigan State guard Robinson Randall in the fourth round in that 2000 draft.

    The rest of the story

    Kevin Foote
    kfoote@theadvertiser.com


  4. UL Football Good luck betting against Jake

    Conventional wisdom says Jake Delhomme doesn’t have a chance today.

    Great guy. Good quarterback. Captain of the crunch drive.

    But against the New England Patriots in his first Super Bowl, Delhomme is supposedly in way over his head as leader of the Carolina Panthers.

    Remember, this Patriots team sent co-MVP’s Steve McNair and Peyton Manning packing on consecutive weeks in the AFC playoffs.

    They intercepted Manning four times after Archie’s son had been nearly perfect in a pair of postseason victories over the Broncos and the Chiefs, so how on earth is Breaux Bridge’s favorite son going to solve Bill Belichick’s schemes?

    Belichick is a guy who befuddled the high-powered St. Louis Rams two years ago, notching a 20-17 Super Bowl XXXVI victory in the Superdome on Adam Vinatieri’s 48-yard field goal on the last play.

    On the other hand, Tom Brady was the quarterback that day, putting together a pressure-packed, game-winning drive to knock off the Rams. The last time we checked, Brady wasn’t exactly Pro Bowl Tom before that day.

    It’s possible to win a Super Bowl on your first try.

    Brad Johnson turned the trick last season as Tampa Bay hammered Oakland 48-21, out-performing Rich Gannon, and he had knocked around the league before that day.

    Trent Dilfer, with whom Delhomme has been most frequently compared of late, was in charge of the Ravens’ offense in 2001 when Baltimore drilled the New York Giants 34-7.

    Go back 11 years, and Troy Aikman was playing in his first Super Bowl as quarterback of the surprising 1992 Dallas Cowboys against the veteran Buffalo Bills.

    So, all Aikman did was throw for four touchdowns to earn Most Valuable Player honors in a 52-17 thrashing of Buffalo — the first of three wins in four years for Dallas.

    Two years later, Steve Young got a monkey off his back by throwing for a record six touchdowns as the 49ers beat San Diego 49-26.

    Joe Gibbs won three Super Bowls with Washington with a trio of different quarterbacks — Joe Theismann, Doug Williams and Mark Rypien.

    Obviously it doesn’t take a Hall of Fame quarterback to win a Super Bowl, although two late Super Bowl wins helped validate John Elway’s credentials for the Hall.

    Quarterbacks get too much credit when a team wins, and too much blame for its shortcomings.

    The rest of the story

    Bruce Brown
    bbrown@theadvertiser.com


  5. UL Football Super Bowl: Delhomme goes from unknown to leader of the Panthers

    HOUSTON -- Jake Delhomme has an identity crisis.

    During a news conference last week, a reporter asked Carolina coach John Fox about his unsung quarterback, Jack Delhomme.

    Strangers regularly mispronounce his last name. (It's duh-lome, not del-home.)

    On draft day in 1997, no one called his name.

    Many of his teammates address him by nickname -- "Bobby Boucher," aka "The Waterboy."

    So who is Delhomme? Who is this spunky quarterback who improbably led the Panthers from last place to an appointment with the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVIII?


    Turns out, Delhomme is a combination of several passers with Super Bowl credentials.

    Delhomme is a little Kurt Warner. Both got their first pro shot in NFL Europe. At first, Delhomme served as Warner's backup for Amsterdam -- the height of anonymity.

    "It is certainly a blow to your ego," Delhomme said. "We didn't know it was Kurt Warner. I don't think anybody did."

    The Saints sent Delhomme back to NFL Europe in 1999, and he led Frankfurt to the World Bowl title.

    "I was able to play football. That was the biggest thing," Delhomme said. "You have so many young quarterbacks. Coaches can't develop a young guy because they have to win now or they'll be gone."

    Delhomme finally had pro experience, but it didn't lead to more playing time with the Saints. He appeared in just six games from 1999-2002, making two starts. Seeking an opportunity to compete for a job, Delhomme signed with Carolina. Then he did something absolutely Warner-like.

    Coming off the bench in the season opener at Jacksonville, Delhomme capped a 17-point second-half rally with a last-minute, fourth-down touchdown pass to Ricky Proehl -- the same Proehl who caught the winning TD pass from Warner as St. Louis edged Tampa Bay in the January 2000 NFC Championship Game.

    "Both guys love to compete," Proehl said. "They play with passion. They have similar backgrounds, so they appreciate where they are. They've been in the shadows and watched other guys do it, and I think they've learned a lot from that."

    Delhomme is a little Terry Bradshaw. Both attended Louisiana schools that play football in the shadow of LSU -- Bradshaw at Louisiana Tech, Delhomme at Louisiana-Lafayette. Both are Louisiana kids -- Bradshaw from Shreveport, Delhomme from Breaux Bridge, which calls itself "The Crayfish Capital of the World."

    The rest of the story

    By Michael Lev
    The Orange County Register


  6. Default Is Delhomme the new Brady?

    HOUSTON — Crowds swarming for autographs. Women lined up 20 at a time, all hoping for a wink or a smile. Nary a moment's peace to enjoy that bowl of gumbo.

    This could be Jake Delhomme. Well, maybe minus the women, since wife Keri and daughter Lauren probably wouldn't appreciate that kind of attention.

    But you get the picture. Win Super Bowl XXXVIII tonight, just like Patriots counterpart Tom Brady did two short years ago, and Delhomme can harvest the majority of that fame-fed yield. And wouldn't that be neat, considering that last year his stock stood no better than a backup on a New Orleans team that folded in the last couple of weeks and missed the playoffs.

    The Panthers' quarterback was, at least professionally, nowhere. But these came-out-of-nowhere stories have happened before. Kurt Warner, former Arena Leaguer and supermarket stockboy, set the NFL afire in 1999 with the Super Bowl champion Rams. And Brady, taking over for an injured Drew Bledsoe, rose from unknown backup to star by winning the 2002 Super Bowl against Warner's Rams.

    Brady is known plenty now. Boston fans long frustrated over the Red Sox's failure to win a World Series are deliriously appreciative of the trophy Brady gave them. He's a football hero to many in the New England area, and a cutie to the female sector.

    He is not known as a great quarterback — only as one who delivers consistently on Bill Belichick's demand that he not make the big mistake.

    And yet, that has been enough to gain respect, even if winning that first ring has cost him some of his privacy.

    "The one thing I've learned the last couple of years is that you have to find time to keep your sanity,'' Brady said. "Find time for yourself. I think to go out and do things with your friends, go to the movies and go to restaurants, that's the stuff that can get more complicated.''

    If Carolina wins the Super Bowl, Delhomme's quiet little life in Breaux Bridge, La., could get a lot more hectic. But at least he'll have the life experience to handle it. The Panthers' quarterback, you see, is 29, three years older than Brady. He's been through a bit more, too, having toiled in NFL Europe for two springs and sitting idle behind Aaron Brooks for most of the last four years with the Saints.

    The comparisons between Delhomme and Brady are natural, though. Both come out of managed offenses. Neither is regarded as having a stellar downfield arm, though both can throw the occasional long shot. And neither was much known before hitting the big stage.

    The rest of the story

    By ERNIE PALLADINO
    THE JOURNAL NEWS

    Send e-mail to Ernie Palladino


    epalladi@thejournalnews.com


  7. UL Football Delhomme's sternest test

    HOUSTON - Poor Jake Delhomme. Poor, poor Jake Delhomme.

    Surely Carolina's quarterback knows what awaits him in Super Bowl XXXVIII at Reliant Stadium. Surely he's seen the list of NFL passers who crumbled under New England's defensive dominance.

    The Patriots, the record shows, held Steve McNair, Chad Pennington, Jay Fiedler and Quincy Carter to season-low passer ratings.

    They toyed with Donovan McNabb, humiliated Kerry Collins and shamed Drew Bledsoe. Even Peyton Manning, co-MVP with McNair, resembled a sandlot amateur while serving up four interceptions in the AFC title game two weeks ago.

    Poor, poor Jake Delhomme. Surely this game is too big for the first-year NFL starter from Louisiana-Lafayette.

    "I don't get caught up in that," Delhomme countered. "The first game of the season could have been too big for me because I had never been involved.

    "Certainly this is a big game, but so were the last three that we played, especially the last two."

    Delhomme was at his best in recent upset road wins over St. Louis (in double overtime) and Philadelphia.

    "On the road, going to St. Louis, you have no chance of winning," Delhomme recounted. "They've won 14 in a row (at home) and had a great season. Well, we didn't believe that.

    "Then we go on to Philadelphia and they won't lose their third NFC title game in a row. I mean, especially because it's at home and that's never happened in history.

    "And a team that won in overtime never won the next week (in the playoffs). So what? You still have to go out and play the game, and that's how I'm looking at this one."

    Patriots coach Bill Belichick and his defensive coordinator, Romeo Crennel, are prime suspects in a string of QB muggings. NFL authorities blame them for holding opposing quarterbacks to a cumulative passer rating of 56.2. For reference, that's the rating a player would have after completing 12-of-20 passes for 130 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions.

    No defense was harder on quarterbacks this season, explaining why Delhomme could be in trouble today. The Panthers will probably counter by doing what they do best: handing off to Stephen Davis and DeShaun Foster.

    New England could face similar challenges from Carolina's defense, led by coach John Fox and a dominating front four. The obvious difference is quarterback Tom Brady's edge in experience.

    Both offenses must pick their spots wisely.

    The rest of the story

    MIKE SANDO; The News Tribune
    Mike Sando: 425-822-9504
    mike.sando@mail.tribnet.com


  8. Default Undrafted Delhomme now an unlikely hero

    HOUSTON — On Feb. 18 the best and the brightest minds in the National Football League will gather in Indianapolis to look at the best and the brawniest bodies available in the league's next draft of college players.

    They will watch the prospects run. They will test their ability to jump. They will study them in the weight room. They will administer intelligence and personality tests. They will videotape all of this activity so they can study it again and again.

    And then, I'm certain, they will look at any quarterback with the size, arm strength, footwork and overall profile of Jake Delhomme and laugh at the idea of wasting a valuable draft pick on such a prospect.

    Even if Jake Delhomme, an undrafted free agent (Class of 1997), quarterbacks the Carolina Panthers to a victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVIII today at Reliant Stadium.

    "Today a lot of people might not know Jake," said Rod Smart, the former Western Kentucky star who plays for Carolina. "After the Super Bowl, the whole world is gonna know Jake. Trust me."

    Could be. But until this magical Carolina season lifted off, the obvious question about Delhomme was:

    What was there to know? Precious little.

    "Jake had a lot of the intangibles we were looking for," said Carolina coach John Fox.

    That's all Delhomme had because to the rest of the NFL he looked like a quarterback on a fast track to joining his father and brother in the modest thoroughbred racing stable they operate at Delta Downs in Louisiana.

    Sure, Delhomme threw for 9,216 yards and 64 touchdowns and 57 interceptions at Louisiana-Lafayette. But on Draft Day, this Ragin' Cajun was hardly raging. Nobody drafted him. He signed with the New Orleans Saints, primarily because they were the team of his boyhood dreams.

    The rest of the story


    Rick Bozich
    (502) 582-4650.


  9. Default Jake Delhomme

    One is already a heartthrob. The other is a nobody. After today's showdown in Texas, the winner becomes the new sheriff in town.

    HOUSTON - Time is running out. In a few hours, you'll know whether you have the first few pages of a hot script. Or a little less space in the wastebasket. So, c'mon, tell me. What's it going to be?

    This kid, this Jake Delhomme, he's got sizzle, right? Small-town boy from the Louisiana bayou on the big stage. Knocked around, written off, tossed aside. Now he could be the winning quarterback at the Super Bowl. Nice, very nice. Sort of a Seabiscuit with Cajun undertones.

    So the story begins here. That's key. Establish his credibility. It's the Super Bowl, for crying out loud. Billions of viewers, lots of Roman numerals.

    Start with him running out of the tunnel. Crowd goes nuts. Mom, Dad, all the cousins hollering. They'll be there. It's what, a three-hour drive from Dipstick, La.? What's that? Breaux Bridge, La.? Whatever.

    The important thing is you've set up the hook. Now, you've got to find some way to take us back through the story. Go for poignant, not cheesy.

    How about newspaper clips? Let them set up each chapter. Tells the story without a narrator. Besides, it's like subtitles. Miramax loves that stuff.

    April 20, 1997 - After seven rounds, the NFL Draft concluded today. Jake Delhomme, of Louisiana-Lafayette, was not chosen.

    How do you like that? They pick 240 college players and this guy isn't one of them. Geez, who was in that draft? Must have been a bunch of franchise quarterbacks. A McNabb or a McNair.

    Nope, that's not the way it went. There were 11 quarterbacks taken and not one has reached the Super Bowl. The best turned out to be Jake Plummer. Next-best? Koy Detmer.

    Anyway, our guy is sitting home in Boondocks, La., waiting for the phone to ring. Sure, he was a small-college quarterback, but it's not like he had a choice. Said every school in Louisiana wanted him, except for LSU.

    So he goes to a school 10 minutes from home, sets all kinds of records, and his best NFL offer is a free-agent contract in New Orleans.

    Aug. 18, 1997 - With one preseason game remaining, the Saints today released rookie quarterback Jake Delhomme.

    Couldn't even make it through his first training camp. And the Saints were so impressed, they didn't protect him on the practice squad for three months.

    Wanna know the best part?

    It happens again. That's right, in 1998 the Saints cut him at midseason and then re-sign him for the practice squad. In 1999? Same thing. Gets released before the season opener. Goes back to Hole-in-the-Wall, La., and waits two months before the Saints call again.

    Here's the kicker - the Saints stink. You know who they have playing in front of him? Heath Shuler. And Danny Wuerffel. And not just one Billy Joe, but two. Tolliver and Hobert.

    Three years into his NFL career, this guy has been on the waiver wire three times. He has been in a game twice.

    April, 1998 - Allocated to Amsterdam in NFL Europe, Jake Delhomme spends a majority of the season planted on the bench.

    This is priceless. You can't make this stuff up. Guy goes halfway around the globe to play in the minor leagues and can't get a sniff.

    But the best part is the cameo. Know who's starting in front of him in Amsterdam? Guy by the name of Kurt Warner. Months before the world discovers him. More than a year before he wins a Super Bowl and is named MVP.

    Anyway, Delhomme is calling home. He hopes, no he needs, his father to convince him not to chuck the whole business and come home to raise horses.

    A year later, the Saints ask him to go back to Europe. This time, he's with Frankfurt. And this time, he's a starter. He takes the Galaxy to the World Bowl Championship. This is where the tone begins to change.

    March 7, 2003 - After six seasons as a backup in New Orleans, Jake Delhomme signs a two-year, $4-million contract with Carolina.

    Soundtrack kicks in. Lots of dramatic camera angles and cuts. First game of the season, our boy is on the bench. He's behind Rodney Peete. Rodney Peete!

    Panthers fall behind Jacksonville 14-0 at the half. Coach tells Delhomme he's in the game. The kid is so excited in the huddle, no one can understand him. His accent kicks in, and it sounds like he's speaking French.

    Takes Carolina to a touchdown on his first drive. Then a field goal. The Panthers still are trailing 23-17 in the final minute when he directs a 54-yard drive and throws the winning touchdown with 16 seconds remaining.

    Now a quick montage. Delhomme is doing it again and again. Eight times he leads Carolina to a winning drive in the final two minutes or in overtime.

    Bing, bang, boom. The Panthers are in the Super Bowl.

    The other quarterback - Brady what's-his-name - dates a celebrity. He shows up at the President's State of the Union address. Our guy? Married to his junior high sweetheart and lives about 50 yards from his parents. Only political connection is his Dad's cousin, Jack Dale Delhomme, who is mayor.

    That's what we've got. In a few hours, the Super Bowl will be over and we'll know if we've got a story with legs.

    Whadda ya think?

    Has the kid got it in him?

    The source of the story

    By JOHN ROMANO,
    Times Sports Columnist
    romano@sptimes.com


  10. UL Football The new breed of Super QB

    HOUSTON -- Tom Brady went to the same California high school as Lynn Swann, and Jake Delhomme came from the same state as Terry Bradshaw, but that does not make these quarterbacks any more likely Super Bowl starters.

    The days of drafting a quarterback as the first pick and nurturing him into the leader of a Super Bowl dynasty and into the Hall of Fame, as the Steelers did with Bradshaw are apparently over.

    Today, for example, Super Bowl XXXVIII serves up Brady, the 199th player chosen in the 2000 draft, for New England. Delhomme, drafted by nobody and cut several times by New Orleans, will start for Carolina.

    Brady vs. Delhomme? It's not quite Bradshaw-Staubach, Marino-Montana or Elway-Favre. This one's more, well, Warner-Brady from just two years ago.

    Brady overcame his status as a sixth-round draft choice to win a Super Bowl, and he's back for another go at it two years later. He dates starlets, and he attends State of the Union addresses at the invitation of the president.

    But 29-year-old Jake Delhomme?

    "Do you know Jake's background?" New Orleans Saints coach Jim Haslett asked the other day over the phone.

    Let Haslett tell you:

    Delhomme, a partner in his family's thoroughbred horse training business, passed for a state-record 9,216 yards at Louisiana-Lafayette but left so little of an impression that no NFL team drafted him. The pre-Haslett Saints signed him in 1997 as a rookie free agent, cut him, put him on the practice squad and sent him to NFL Europe the following spring. There, he backed up Kurt Warner with the Amsterdam Admirals.

    New Orleans again waived him in '98 and put him on their practice squad. He went back to NFL Europe in '99, where he helped the Frankfurt Galaxy to the World Bowl championship. Back in New Orleans that summer, the Saints cut him a third time, re-signed him in November and he started two games because of injuries.

    When Haslett arrived as coach in 2000, he resisted cutting Delhomme and released Marc Bulger.

    "I thought Mike McCarthy did a great job with him and got him a lot better," Haslett said of his offensive coordinator, a Pittsburgh native. "When we first got here, he was lucky he made the team, to be honest with you. Mike worked with his throwing skills, his decision-making, his accuracy. Jake was just OK in everything, not great in any of them. He gives Mike a lot of credit."

    The rest of the story

    (Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3878.)

    By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


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