Jason Garrett: the next Sean Payton?

JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL

Watching Saints coach Sean Payton drag and diagram and coconut New Orleans to a Super Bowl XLIV victory Sunday reminded me a lot of Betty White being pummeled in a friendly game of tackle football during commercial interruptions.

Genius ad, BTW.

I am pretty sure Betty has an ability to turn just about anything into funny right now. Including an octogenarian getting pummeled and verbally eviscerated by a teammate in a huddle.

"That's not what your girlfriend said," was White's comeback.

Anyway, as it happens in commercials, along comes a point where product must be sold and we were reminded: You are not you when hungry, you play like Betty White, thus eat Snickers. And I cannot help but think this catchy phrase, properly tweaked, once applied to Payton.

"You are not you when you are an assistant."

Or in Payton's case, you coach like Bill Parcells.

Anybody close to Cowboysland during Payton's tenure understood this was a gutsy, risk-taking, bright, inventive offensive coordinator. And he was allowed to be that guy three of every 10 plays. The other seven he lost the battle of the headphones and had to do what Big Bill wanted, so we see him now and go, "Wow, where was that guy?"

This is not another ode to what might have been. The Payton-as-Cowboys-coach ship has sailed. Really for anybody who watched Sunday's festivities from... -- Continue reading at the publisher's site