Emotional Rescue: Coach Inspires Saints and a City- NYT article (1 Viewer)

[longtime lurker]

A really good read. Steve Gleason compares the Saints fans love for the team like a college atmosphere....

By LEE JENKINS
Published: October 29, 2006
NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 27 — This city can appreciate a leader who emphasizes accountability, inspires action and once represented a European brewery.

Over the past 150 years, the Everards Brewery in Leicester, England, has produced a variety of bitter ales and one sweet-talking football coach.

Sean Payton had failed as a player in the National Football League, the Canadian Football League and the Arena Football League when he got the call from a British beer league in 1987, asking him to be a quarterback and a coach for the Leicester Panthers.

Everards, which owned the Panthers, offered Payton free housing, a free car and a modest signing bonus — “all the beer I could drink,” Payton joked.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/sports/football/29payton.html

 

[Aracos]

Good find. +1

 

[diat150]

great read....

 

[billinms]

Great story! I wish I could find a job to pay for my beer.

 

[ndcc]

A really good read. Steve Gleason compares the Saints fans love for the team like a college atmosphere....

Absolutely great find!

 

[BobE]

fantastic read thanks for posting

 

[BigSlick]

Tremendous. Thanks very much for the linkage.

 

[kooldak]

Nice article and great find. I put it out on the sr.com news page with props to longtime lurker.

 

[CT Saints Fan]

Nice find.

P.S. Did the author have to pay the Rolling Stones for that headline?

 

[Gumerk]

What a treasure of a find. Thank you.

 

[Ojo]

Awesome find!

A quote I like from the article:

“When we play, there is something more going on than your typical game,” linebacker Scott Fujita said. “It’s unspoken. It’s given. But I feel it. We all feel it. It’s become part of our subconscious. It’s with us all the time.”

 

[Mr. Blue Sky]

I think Gleason summed it up nicely with his comment about the Dome being like a college atmosphere. It feels very special to be a Saints fan right now- I think we're part of something that most people will never get to experience in their entire lives.....

 

[mvtrucking]

Enjoyed that alot. Thanks LL!

 

[bender12212]

I think Gleason summed it up nicely with his comment about the Dome being like a college atmosphere. It feels very special to be a Saints fan right now- I think we're part of something that most people will never get to experience in their entire lives.....

+1

whatever happens, this is a special year.

plus, i love Payton's past.

 

[Matsubway]

"Payton was the Giants’ offensive coordinator and play-caller when they went to Arizona in September 2002. With 14 seconds remaining in the first half, Payton wanted to kneel on the ball. Jim Fassel, the Giants’ coach, wanted to throw it.

Payton had to go along with his boss. Kerry Collins, the Giants’ quarterback, threw the pass, but not in the direction Fassel wanted. The ball was intercepted and returned for a touchdown. One month later, Payton was stripped of play-calling duties."


Odd that Fassel was let go before SP had a chance for retaliation...