Parcells: ‘I feel an obligation’ to help Saints coach Payton
PALM BEACH, Fla. — When the NFL in early March released details of an investigation that revealed a bounty program that has rocked the New Orleans Saints, one of the first calls coach Sean Payton made to discuss the issue went to Bill Parcells.
Payton talked with Parcells three times on that first day, and they talked eight or nine times within a week, Parcells said.
In some ways, it was like a son in crisis mode phoning home.
“I feel an obligation, a responsibility to help him,” Parcells told USA TODAY on Wednesday, a day after playing golf and discussing the team’s issues with Payton and general manager Mickey Loomis. “I’m very close to Sean. We converse quite frequently, more than people would know, about strategy, players and our personal lives.”
Payton was an assistant on Parcells’ Dallas Cowboys staff.
“Ever since we worked together in Dallas, we hit it off,” Parcells said. “I like this guy. I know he’s a football guy, through and through. Those are the type of people I’m attracted to, as opposed to people who are in it for reasons beyond the love of the game. ... I just felt a kinship with him, from the first time I met him.”
Payton is expected to begin a one-year suspension Sunday and Loomis will miss eight regular-season games for their roles in a bounty program administered by former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has yet to discipline any players involved in the scandal as he awaits input from the NFL Players Association.
So the Payton–parcells connection might be crucial to the team’s immediate fortunes. The Saints, who won the NFC South at 13-3 last season, could offer Parcells, 70, the head coaching job while Payton is suspended.
“We really haven’t talked about the job,” Parcells said. “We’ve talked about the team, the players. There’s things still going on that are unanswered.”
Even so, it seems natural Parcells would be a candidate to fill in for Payton, who has adopted some of Parcells’ philosophies.
“I know people are thinking, ‘There’s a deal already done,’ ” said Parcells, a two-time Super Bowl champion as a head coach. “But really, he’s my friend. That’s the first thing this is about.”
Parcells, while insisting a job hasn’t been offered, would not rule out a temporary return.
“That’s for down the road,” he said. “I swear it.”
Parcells said he was content with a retirement lifestyle that includes trips to the racetrack, watching exhibition baseball and as an ESPN analyst. “I’m happy,” he says. “I’m also happy to be able to help coaches.”
Payton particularly reminds Parcells when he was younger and mining veterans for advice.
“When I was his age, that’s what I was doing to Tom Landry, Chuck Noll and Chuck Knox,” Parcells said. “Those people took the time to talk to me. I’ve tried to do the same thing.”
HGH testing:
Goodell indicated Wednesday that he was willing to move forward on the NFLPA’S request for study of human growth hormone testing if players first make concessions.
The union wants a population study to get a better idea of normal hormone levels for large NFL players as opposed to other athletes currently factored into the HGH tests. The union has cited that lack of study as reason for its rejection of blood testing.
“If the population study was the only thing in the way from us reaching an agreement,” Goodell said, “we’d have an agreement.”
New overtime rule:
Arizona Cardinals coach Ken Whisen- hunt, a member of the league’s competition committee, favored Wednesday’s unanimous approval by owners of having the two-possession overtime rule for postseason implemented for the 2012 regular season.
“You play by a set of rules the whole year, then get to the playoffs, the most important time of the year, and change,” said Whisenhunt, whose team played four overtimes in 2011. “Why not make it the same all year?”
-The other key change was that most turnovers will be subject to replay review similar to scoring plays. A proposal to take all replay decisions to the review booth didn’t pass. Proposals to amend the injured reserve rule, allowing one marquee player to return after Week 8, and suggestions to expand rosters and extend the trade deadline were tabled until May.