Payton's rebirth mirrors Saints' rise to top

MIAMI

Sure, Sean Payton is one step away from winning the most coveted prize in pro football as he leads his underdog New Orleans Saints against Peyton Manning's Indianapolis Colts.

And yes, Payton is widely acknowledged as one of the brightest offensive tacticians in the game, as his deft handling of Drew Brees will attest.

But it was not that long ago that Payton was a pariah among offensive coaches, a man who had suffered the ignominy of having his play-calling duties stripped. Think back to 2002, when the Giants were struggling on offense. During the bye week that season, Payton's mother died. A week later, the Giants lost to the Eagles, 17-3. Jim Fassel took over the play-calling duties and the Giants made the playoffs.

But Bill Parcells, who was coaching the Cowboys at the time, was willing to take a chance on Payton and hired him as quarterbacks coach the next year. It proved to be the beginning of a career renaissance that now has him on the doorstep of his first Super Bowl title.

As it turns out, Payton looks back to his experiences with both organizations as important formative years in his coaching career.

"I was fortunate to have had three years with the Dallas Cowboys, an organization like that with Bill Parcells, three years before that with the New York Giants, and those are a couple flagship organizations that have won a lot," said Payton, a former college quarterback at Eastern Illinois who also played in the Arena League and was a quarterback for the Bears' replacement team during the 1987 NFL strike. "Being with the people there in Dallas and the staff we put together was a great experience for me. I consider myself fortunate to have had a chance to be touched by all these, and they are a big reason that I'm sitting here today. It was very important, very instrumental in my development."

And look where he is now. Payton's brilliant offensive schemes have catapulted a once-forlorn franchise into the Super Bowl for the first time in the team's 43-year history. The Saints are one step away from completing a championship run as unexpected as the first of Parcells' two Super Bowl titles in January 1987.

It is not the first time Parcells has helped rehabilitate a coach who had fallen out of favor. In 1996, Parcells made Bill Belichick a member of his staff with the Patriots after Belichick was fired by the Browns the year before. Belichick was the team's secondary coach for that year's Super Bowl run, and he eventually took over as head coach, winning three Super Bowl titles.

It is not difficult to see Parcells' imprint on Payton. There is the maniacal attention to detail. The often brusque way he treats players, and even some media members. But most of all, there is the outside-the-box thinking that has turned him into a X's and O's savant.

"Sean Payton is like a mad scientist when it comes to route-running and spacing between defensive players," said Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey, who was with Payton in 2002 and was reunited before the 2008 season when Payton acquired him from the Giants. "You can bet that he'll be at his best in this game."

Payton has become a master of offensive schemes, helping to turn even pedestrian quarterbacks such as Quincy Carter into serviceable passers. His work with Tony Romo helped turn him into the Cowboys' franchise quarterback. But his best work has been with Brees, who was Payton's first cornerstone acquisition shortly after he became the Saints' coach in 2006.

"I can't say enough about the job Sean has done," Brees said. "There isn't any coach who is more prepared, and his willingness to do whatever it takes to move the football and to score touchdowns is just amazing. It's been unbelievable to work with him."

The results show. The Saints were the NFL's top-ranked offense during the regular season, averaging 31.9 points per game and producing 403.8 yards per game. Brees had a phenomenal year with 4,388 yards, 34 touchdown passes and 11 interceptions.

What's just as impressive is that Brees hasn't had the kind of go-to receivers that other big-time quarterbacks have had. Consider that seven Saints players had at least 35 catches and only one, Marques Colston, had more than 1,000 receiving yards.

So now it's Payton vs. Peyton, and the Saints' coach will see if his schemes are good enough for Brees to outplay the greatest quarterback of our generation - maybe the best ever by the time Manning's career is over.

He's one transcendent game plan away from hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy aloft.