Pro. Jake Delhomme

[NewsCopy]

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

[NewsCopy]

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

[NewsCopy]

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

[NewsCopy]

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.

[NewsCopy]

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

[NewsCopy]

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

[NewsCopy]

HOUSTON -- Not since the St. Louis Rams' Kurt Warner went from grocery clerk to league MVP has there been such an inspiring Super Bowl story.

Win or lose Sunday, Jake Delhomme will spend his offseason as he always does: in Breaux Bridge, La., visiting family and friends and tending to the stable of thoroughbreds in his father's barn.

Delhomme hasn't changed since leaving Breaux Bridge, but his world has been altered dramatically. That was apparent when the satellite TV trucks crammed into his parents' driveway, and the writer approached him about the book deal, and the PR reps had his picture shot for the "Got Milk?" ad campaign.

The mop-topped Cajun with the funny accent and the French name that translates loosely as "The Man" is the starting quarterback for the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl VIII.

"Jake Delhomme is the story of the Super Bowl," said Delhomme's agent, Rick Smith. "This could not have happened to a better person. He is just an unbelievable human being. His story is genuine."

To be where he is today, Delhomme has defied all odds, said former Tulane University assistant coach Frank Monica.

"He wasn't supposed to succeed," Monica said. "He came from a small school and a small town. He's kind of the Seabiscuit of quarterbacks."

For most of Delhomme's football career, few believed in him.

Monica remembers the first time he saw Delhomme. It was spring 1992, the end of Delhomme's junior year. Monica and Tulane head coach Buddy Teevens went to scout Delhomme at a spring practice at tiny Teurlings Catholic High School, where the quarterback was rewriting the school's record books.

Monica said he had doubts about "the narrow-butted, pencil-necked kid" and the competition he faced at Louisiana's lowest level of prep football. But he also remembers Delhomme's flair and infectious enthusiasm.

The rest of the story

BY JEFF DUNCAN
c.2004 Newhouse News Service

jduncan@timespicayune.com.

[NewsCopy]

FOR all 11 years of a journeyman's career, he swore he would never come to the annual celebration of success known as the Super Bowl unless he earned his way down to the field. Then Jake Delhomme was on the line, barking out an audible, making the call.

"I have two tickets for you and your son," Delhomme told his old friend, his former teammate, Billy Joe Tolliver.

"Naw, Jake, this is your day," Tolliver replied. "Use them for your family."

• But here was the point Tolliver really wanted to make during a telephone interview about Delhomme, the mystery quarterback on the Carolina Panthers' surprise ride to a date with destiny and the New England Patriots at Reliant Stadium: it was no accident, no serendipitous bounce of fate, that Delhomme, at 29, had emerged from the shadows, evolved from career scrub to Super Bowl starter.

"Jake didn't ask me to come, he told me," Tolliver said. "Jake wouldn't let me not come because he's not a guy who takes no for answer. He's not what the media makes him out to be, all that Breaux Bridge backward bull. People who know him see that right away."

They answer his call, his commands. Tolliver, nine years Delhomme's senior, retired from football, took the tickets, planned his drive here, three and a half hours from Shreveport, La., with his 15-year-old son.

They spent two seasons together in New Orleans, Delhomme and Tolliver, Cajun and Texan, mostly in the film room, the weight room, waiting on the sideline many a Sunday afternoon. Mike Ditka, then the Saints' head coach, made Tolliver the starter in a typically woeful Ditka-era season, 1998. He cut Delhomme the same day, another body blow during a six-year bout with himself and the football world to keep his career upright.

Understand something about Delhomme: even as roster filler, a third-stringer, he kept the company of some pretty fair-haired quarterbacks. We know how he served as a backup to Kurt Warner in N.F.L. Europe before Warner went on to star in two Super Bowls, winning one, in St. Louis. Brett Favre is a Louisiana homeboy. Most of all, Delhomme during his time in New Orleans forged a relationship with the Family Manning, working at camps run by Archie, Peyton and Eli, proud now to call them friends.

But ask Delhomme to name the quarterback he considers his mentor, who most encouraged him with conviction to not surrender to the sadness of Sunday inactivity, and he will not hesitate for a moment.

"By far Billy Joe Tolliver," Delhomme said. "When I was first in New Orleans, I was lucky enough that he took me under his wing. His family wasn't living with him and I wasn't married yet. I did a lot of things with him, a lot of dinners, and I just tried to learn from him how to be a true professional by what he did, on the field and in the classroom."

The rest of the story

By HARVEY ARATON
The New York Times

[NewsCopy]

JUST how anonymous are the Carolina Panthers?

Before Super Bowl XXXVIII, in which the Panthers face the favoured New England Patriots at Reliant Stadium this morning, Carolina coach John Fox was asked about his quarterback, "Jack" Delhomme.

"His name is Jake," Fox reminded the journalist.

This week, Delhomme, an excitable 29-year-old with a fondness for horse racing, faced the ignominy of being stopped on his way to a Super Bowl news conference by security who had no idea who he was and demanded to see identification after he told them.

Rodney Dangerfield gets more respect.

But Delhomme laughs it off. "It doesn't bother me," he says. "Anyway, I've been called Jack my whole life, I've gotten used to it."

In every way, Delhomme is the perfect leader of a team which two years ago was the worst in the NFL, with one win in their 16-game season.

Like the Panthers, who in their nine-year history have rarely risen above mediocrity, Delhomme has spent a career hearing he wasn't big or strong enough to be an NFL quarterback.

In 1998, he almost believed it himself, going to Amsterdam to play in NFL Europe where he was relegated to the bench.

"Talk about a blow to your ego," he recalls, "If you can't start in NFL Europe, how are you going to make (an NFL) roster?"

But Delhomme persevered, even in the shadows of being a back-up with the New Orleans Saints for six years.

"You know, I thought I could play football," he says simply. "Sometimes if you're not the tallest guy, or have the strongest arm, you get pushed off to the side.

"One thing you can't measure out of all the normal tests is the size of someone's heart. I thought I had a lot of heart."

His team-mates could not agree more.

"There's no fear factor with the guy," centre Jeff Mitchell says. "He's got a lot of balls in his pants and not much of a lump in his throat."

The same could be said of the Panthers, who have been recast by second-year coach John Fox into a team that kills opponents with defence and pounds them with an unstoppable running game featuring Washington Redskins discard Stephen Davis, who this year amassed a career-best 1444 yards.

For a nation that has trouble distinguishing the Panthers from the Jacksonville Jaguars, believers in the team were few, even as they were recording impressive wins.

The rest of the story

Advertiser
By Robert Lusetich

[NewsCopy]

On January 30th, 2000, 1998's 4-12 Saint Louis Rams shocked the world and the Rams won their first Super Bowl. Previously unknown Kurt Warner beat the well-known Steve McNair. This started a string of an unknown or underappreciated quarterback who brought his team the NFL championship

Lately, Lombardi has smiled down on unknown backups in the big game. In 2001 (January 28th), it was a battle of non-stars as Trent Dilfer took on Kerry Collins in Super Bowl XXXV. Trent, the downtrodden Ravens QB, outdueled the Giants QB and Baltimore won its first NFL championship Baltimore 34, N.Y. Giants 7. Yes, the unheralded QB won a championship.

In 2002, the Super Bowl was a battle of the Cinderella story Warner versus backup Tom Brady of the New England Patriots. Brady had unseated the Pats all-star QB Drew Bledsoe. In one of the most exciting Super Bowls to date, Brady led his team to a New England 20, St. Louis 17 victory. For the third straight year, a new champion behind a relatively unknown QB.

Last year, we saw it again. In Super Bowl XXXVII, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeat the Oakland Raiders soundly behind castoff Brad Johnson. This brought Tampa Bay its first Lombardi trophy.

So what will it be in 2004? Will Jake Delhomme, a six-year Saint who finally got his chance this year for Carolina, lead his team to its first NFL championship? I think so and I also expectthe press to hoist its new golden boy to the public's shoulders as we celebrate another championship with an unknown quarterback at the helm. If you think back to the years of Aikman, Favre, and Elway, it's amazing to see these new guys earn instant immortality as their franchises earn their first NFL championship. After all, if it were not for the Super Bowl, would the name Doug Williams mean anything to anyone not a Redskins fan? Congrats again Doug for your immortality.

The rest of the story

By Don Ackerman
Don@RamsNation.org.

[NewsCopy]

Jake Delhomme plays in the Super Bowl today. Aaron Brooks' Saints have failed to make the playoffs three years running. Many frustrated fans want to know whether the Saints let the wrong guy get away.

It's so easy to say now, isn't it? That the Saints would have been better off with Jake Delhomme as their starting quarterback.

So dang easy to say a year after Delhomme, eager for a chance to start in the NFL, left the Saints and helped lead the Carolina Panthers to the Super Bowl. Painfully easy to say after watching Aaron Brooks continue his quixotic play at quarterback. Of course, there's another reason it's easy to say.

Because it's true.

Yes, it is.

The Saints would have been better off with Jake.

Brooks has the stronger arm. Brooks has the faster feet. But Delhomme has something more important: leadership skills.

Last June, hoping to nurture those same skills in Brooks, Saints coaches joined him during a two-day leadership seminar conducted by author John C. Maxwell. Delhomme doesn't need to take the course.

His leadership skills are as unmistakable as his Cajun accent.

"I knew what kind of guy Jake was two months after I got here," Joe Horn, the Saints' star receiver, said this week. "He was a leader. Leaders are born, man.

"I don't care how many classes you take. They can't teach you how to be a leader."

He's right. You can learn Spanish. You can learn how to cook. You can learn good table manners. But you can't learn leadership.

Horn emphasized that he wasn't criticizing Brooks. I'm not here to bash Brooks either. I'm here to bash the man responsible for denying Delhomme a chance to start with the Saints.

Forget about Brooks' chronic fumbling. It was coach Jim Haslett who dropped the ball.

When Brooks injured his shoulder against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002, Delhomme came off the bench and preserved the Saints' victory with a critical third-down pass. Next week, Haslett was smart enough to see that Brooks was hurting, and in went Delhomme, who preserved the victory against the Baltimore Ravens, going 7-of-8 passing for 103 yards.

That was the last we saw of Delhomme. Instead we saw Brooks, gamely struggling with his injured throwing shoulder. Saw the Saints lose their last three games when they needed to win just one to make the playoffs. Saw Haslett stick to his guns and insist his quarterback was perfectly fine, when anybody with a pair of eyes and three brain cells knew different.

The Saints admitted as much after the season when they disclosed that Brooks would need surgery to repair his injured shoulder.

Billy Joe Tolliver, who played for the Saints in the late 1990s and urged the Haslett regime to keep Delhomme, said it was a delicate situation.

"All those coaches wanted to see Delhomme on that field and see what he could do," Tolliver said. "But they've also got some issues in that locker room. . . .

"Jake's going to go in there, and he's going to play his (butt) off, and then what do you do now? Now you're dividing your team."

Great. They avoided a controversy. Now they've got another controversy: the running debate among Saints fans about whether Haslett has stunted Brooks' development by coddling him and whether Haslett can ever reprise the glory of his first season, when he was chosen the AP Coach of the Year and the Saints won their first postseason game.

What's odd is Haslett has a reputation for taking chances. Onside kicks. Fourth-down gambles. The occasional fake punt. And yet he wouldn't take a chance on Jake.

It's not that Delhomme is the next Joe Montana or John Elway or Steve Young. He doesn't need to be. Just look at the past three Super Bowl winners and their quarterbacks.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won with Brad Johnson. The New England Patriots won with Tom Brady. The Baltimore Ravens won with Trent Dilfer. They won because they had punishing defenses, solid running games and quarterbacks who made more timely plays than spectacular ones and didn't lose games. Quarterbacks like Jake.

Oh, well. The Saints can take pride in knowing they had a homegrown Louisiana quarterback who made it to the Super Bowl. It might be the closest they ever get.

. . . . . . .


Josh Peter can be reached at jpeter@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3407.

The source of the story

[Turbine]

The Hype is over the game has begun.

I will scan the web and find writeups as they happen in real time