Haener starts vs Commanders: 1 INT, 5 punts ; Rattler replaced Haener in 2H: led to 19 points

St. Widge said

The Brooks vs. Delhomme war was over the top crazy. People totally dug in. Much worse than we have seen since.

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The real issue with the divide was that Aaron Brooks had a separated throwing shoulder and it clearly impacted his play in season where a single win in our final three games - against three very winnable opponents - would have secured a playoff spot.

Keep in mind that we’d swept the eventual Super Bowl champion Bucs that season, so the playoffs would have been full of possibilities.

Haslett trotted out a diminished Brooks and we laid horrid eggs in the final two games and 9-4 became 9-7 and no playoffs.

Delhomme, realizing that he clearly had no shot at playing here - departed for a division rival and immediately took them to the Super Bowl in 03’.

So the Brooks/Delhomme divide was with good reason. There was no reasonable excuse why Delhomme didn’t play those final two games in 02’.