Delhomme is no secret

By Pat Kirwan
Special to SuperBowl.com


(Jan. 12, 2004) -- An NFL team never drafted him, but now he's on the verge of leading his team to the Super Bowl. Before I get into why was it possible that the league could pass on this kid back in the 1997 draft, it appears that others have passed on this young man along the way. Of course, I'm talking about Jake Delhomme, the Carolina Panthers quarterback who has to be considered the best offseason acquisition of 2003.

Born on Jan. 10, 1975 in Lafayette, La., the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Delhomme came out of Teurlings Catholic High School (his hometown school), where he was an all-state defensive back -- even though he threw for 6,703 yards and 65 touchdown passes.

Did he get a major college scholarship? There wasn't a Louisiana State University, Texas, Southern Cal or Florida in his decision-making process. So Delhomme headed to the closest college -- Louisiana-Lafayette -- to his home, where he was the only true freshman to start for the Division I-A school in 1993. He finished up his college career with 9,216 yards and 64 touchdowns. Delhomme was even a better college QB than he was a high school signal-caller. But the NFL draft came and went and no one thought he was even worth a seventh-round pick. I'm telling you, NFL evaluators still don't know how to measure character, leadership and toughness properly. But along came Saints general manager Bill Kuharich, who offered him a free-agent contract.

Long before Delhomme was a household name, Kuharich would talk to me about this natural-born leader he signed after the draft. He said the kid had something magical about him. I once spoke with Kuharich after he had left the Saints organization and he told me, "If ever I get another chance to run an NFL franchise, I'm going to build it around Jake Delhomme." That was back in 2000 after a young Delhomme had a grand total of two NFL starts with three touchdown passes and five interceptions.

All Delhomme had ever asked for was a chance to start and that's why he chose the Panthers and head coach John Fox one week after he was granted unconditional free agency on Feb. 28, 2003. He didn't start in the opener this season, but Delhomme came off the bench at halftime and threw three touchdown passes to lead his team to victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Fox didn't get much consideration for Coach of the Year in 2003, but if you had considered his team being in the NFC Championship Game in only his second year and factored in the trust level he has in Delhomme, who hadn't started a game since 1999 and only threw 10 passes in three years before joining the Panthers, you might want to reconsider your vote.

What this story is about is how much Delhomme has grown since he got the chance to start. Unlike a lot of rookie quarterbacks who get thrown on the field as high-priced draft picks and crumble under the pressure and expectations, Delhomme just keeps getting stronger.

After that remarkable second half to launch his Panthers career, he was asked to be a caretaker of a team with a good running game and a solid defense. But from the first month of the season until the last month, Delhomme has become much more than that and the Eagles are his next stop along his incredible journey. Let's compare his numbers from the first month when his team won all four games to his last four games, which includes playoff wins over Dallas and St. Louis, the first- and 12th-ranked pass defenses in the league.

Delhomme by the numbers
Weeks W/L Attempts Completions YDs. TDs INTs
1-4 4-0 93 53 542 4 4
16-19 4-0 120 79 1,014 6 3


Notice that the Panthers coaches now have him averaging 30 passes per game as compared to the 23 passes per game back in September. With those seven extra attempts per game, Delhomme increased his yards per game from 135 to 253. He has arrived as a legitimate NFL quarterback who can carry his weight and win games with his arm, if and when he has to. If Delhomme goes into 2004 as productive as he is ending the 2003 season, he will throw for over 4,000 yards and 24 touchdowns.

In an era where salary-cap issues, ages of players and the intangibles are all critical factors for a team, it is refreshing to see the Jake Delhomme story happen. As for Fox, it might be too late for the Coach of the Year award, but it's not too late for him to be named Talent Evaluator of the Year. The challenge Delhomme presents to the talent evaluators around the NFL as they watch the college all-star practices the next few weeks is to not let the next Delhomme slip through the cracks, or they might find themselves watching the playoffs on TV back home.
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http://www.superbowl.com/playoffs/story/7000310

 

Brain, this gives me an excuse to post this 1998 Dan Pompei article from the Sporting News. Pretty funny.

"What the Saints did was replace a mule with a thoroughbred"? WTF?

Hope the link works...

Saints deserve credit, not contempt, in Collins case. (New Orleans Saints did the right thing by acquiring disgruntled quarterback Kerry Collins)(Column)(Brief Article)
Sporting News, The, Oct 26, 1998, by Dan Pompei

It really doesn't matter anymore whether a white flag was waved, or that nearly every denizen of Tobacco Road thinks he is a tin man. What matters is this: As a result of the Kerry Collins imbroglio, the Saints are a better team and the Panthers are a worse one. What the Saints did was replace a mule with a thoroughbred. Jake Delhomme, whom Collins replaces on the roster, wasn't drafted after coming out of Southwestern Louisiana last year. He failed to make anyone on two continents notice when he played for the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe last spring. Collins, meanwhile, was the fifth overall pick in the 1995 draft from Penn State, where he directed his team to an undefeated season and won the Davey O'Brien Award as college football's best quarterback. With the Panthers, he has played in the Pro Bowl and taken his team to the NFC championship game. Any questions?
OK, so there are a few questions about Collins. Let's address them.
Isn't he a quitter?
There is no reason to believe Panthers coach Dom Capers lied when he said Collins told him his heart wasn't in quarterbacking the Panthers. Regardless if Collins said exactly what was attributed to him by Capers, Collins did not handle his frustration well. He should not be portrayed with halo and wings, but neither should he be portrayed with horns and goatee.
Collins didn't want to play for the Panthers anymore in light of how they responded to him. That doesn't necessarily make him lower than grubs. He didn't walk off the field in the middle of a game. The Saints don't think Collins is a quitter. General manager Bill Kuharich says he believes Collins' version of the story, that Collins just volunteered to step aside if Capers thought he was the problem.
"I don't buy that he orchestrated (his release)," says Kuharich, who checked on Collins' character before claiming him on waivers by talking with former Panthers people such as Colts G.M. Bill Polian and Saints players Chad Cora and Eric Guilford, former teammates of Collins in Carolina.
Saints coach Mike Ditka says he doesn't even care what Collins said to Capers. It isn't an issue with him. "Winners are winners," Ditka says. "I told you about (Doug) Flutie years ago. This kid (Collins) is like that. I'll take him in a foxhole with me."
In fact, Ditka has liked everything about Collins since he met him in 1995. Ditka expressed his admiration for Collins over the summer when they saw each other at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. Say what you will about Ditka, but when he vouches for someone, it's an endorsement you can count on.
Doesn't Collins have a drinking problem?
"I guess at some point in our lives, we all had one of those (drinking problems)," Ditka says. "I talked to him about that. I'm sure he does what they call `binge drinking.' But he has enough character to control that, and we have some people around here who can help him overcome that."
Tales of Collins' thirst scared off some teams. But Collins' agent, Leigh Steinberg, says as far as he knows, Collins hasn't had a drink in a couple of months.

Continued…

http://www.findarticles.com/m1208/n43_v222/21236230/p1/article.jhtml

 

LOL. Good to see that Collins lasted so long in NO.

 

That's basically a cookie cutter article from the year Kurt Warner led the Rams to the Super Bowl. I don't think anyone ever said Jake wasn't talented or that he didn't belong in the NFL. He just wasn't marketed very well in college and managed to stay below the radar. In the Pro's he was stuck in a system he didn't seem to fit.
The feel-good stuff is getting a little old, but if Delhomme is this years Warner...so be it! I'll feel good about that!

 

We haven't had to endure the pure, nothing-to-do-with-football, syrupy "Feel-good" stuff about Jake...yet. If I had had to see one more "special report" about Warner's grocery store shelf boy days, or had had to listen to one more interview with Kurt's wife, I woulda hurled.

God forbid.

I'll feel good right along with ya, McFly; just pray they leave the really nauseating schlock for Brady or Manning.

At least we don't have Favre's "destiny" to worry about any more.

 

Yep, Brenda Warner was probably hot...until she got that Susan Powder hair cut and the Almighty started picking out her wardrobe!

Thank GOD, Jake's not pitching the bible everytime the camera is on him...and he has a woman that knows she should keep her mouth shut. Is he even married?

 

Yep, he's married. He has a daughter that's about a year old now.

 

I shouldn't say keeps her mouth shut, but at least doesn't create more trouble by opening her mouth. There are a number of NFL wifes who are VERY active in the communities they live in and other honorable endevors.

Hell I didn't even know he was married...that's cool though.

 

I can't wait. If he QBs the winning SB team we get to hear; Yep just an ole farm boy. Spent many a day in the horse barn shovelling shit in Louisianna. Met his wife when she was 10 years old after he helped her shuck her horses' dick.She was so shy. Yep, good ole days down on the farm in the loft just learning what comes naturally.