After one of the most destructive hurricanes in US history strikes its city, a rookie head coach and an injured quarterback create a partnership that changes the culture of a football franchise and leads the team to Super Bowl Victory
Now That Should Be A Movie.
It is called Payton and Brees.
It is a sports drama.
In the vein of The Blindside.
It is like Moneyball meets Ford vs Ferrari.
It follows spirited rookie head coach Sean Payton
And injured reserved quarterback Drew Brees
As they seek to change the team’s lackadaisical culture of defeat to one that will inspire the city of New Orleans to recover from the destruction of Hurricane Katrina.
Problems arise when the team loses games and Payton’s compulsive obsessive management style strains relationships within the franchise.
Now together, as Sean grows out of his compulsive obsessive style, he and Brees will create a partnership that leads the team to Super Bowl victory and the Gulf Coast to a cathartic healing.
The idea came to me when the Saints won Super Bowl XLIV, and I read an interview with Drew Brees in which he said he felt called by God to be the quarterback for the team to minister to the people of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
My unique approach would be the cerebral side, routine, and mental discipline of pre-planning football plays juxtaposed with the excitement of game-day victories and the passion of the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast as they recover from the hurricane.
A set piece would be during Bye Week of Payton and Brees’s first season with the Saints. All the players are supposed to be resting and recharging. Sean and his staff are at work in the team’s practice facility. Payton looks out and sees Drew throwing a football at the far endzone. Payton walks out to the practice field and asks him what he is doing. Brees says he is trying to keep his body in condition and routine. “Well, I hope we’re winning,” says an impressed Payton.
Target audiences would be everyone, men and women (18-100), teenagers, children, football fans, sports fans, and residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast Region.
Audiences would want to see it for its themes of dedication, inspiration, motivation, discipline, passion, enthusiasm, excitement, underdog story, comeback, story Cinderella story, recovering from disaster and the traditions it follows in the footsteps of classics like Rocky, Creed, Seabiscuit, Remember The Titans, The Rookie, We Are Marshall and Rudy.
Today’s book I would like to pitch as a movie is Payton and Brees: The Men Who Built the Greatest Offense in NFL History by Jeff Duncan, from Triumph Books.
Yes, another post on why the New Orleans Saints winning Super Bowl XLIV Should Be A Movie. Because, as my previous series of posts shows, there is just so much evidence that it should be a movie. Because I have previously laid out how the Saints’ story can be told in The Three Act Structure of a screenplay, I will only lightly touch on structure in this post. The previous books I have covered on the subject approached it from the individual perspectives of Drew and Sean, the 2006 football season, and the political and social aspects of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Payton and Brees explores and focuses on the relationship between the coach and the quarterback from their initial meeting in 2006 through their 15-year partnership, to their respective retirements. And it offers plenty of material for a movie production.
Drew and Sean are an odd couple straight out of a Neil Simon play. The former is quiet, reserved, and conservative. The latter is a spirited free spirit, outgoing, and rowdy. Brees reads his Bible every morning in private while Payton regularly dips smokeless tobacco in public.
Besides characterization, Duncan’s book offers details that the prop department can use to add authenticity to a production. Payton uses a yellow highlighter to identify each of Brees’ favorite plays on a laminated call sheet. Then he uses a black Sharpie to add a single back dot to each he likes. Payton marks spots on the field with chalk or shaving cream so new players know exactly where to stand. Drew creates games like “pencil football” and “football golf” to keep his fellow players in a competitive mode.
It offers authentic dialogue for a screenwriter to include in the screenplay. Payton likes to say, “The hay is never in the barn,” which means it is never too late to add something to the game plan.
Other small details include Joe Horn and Reggie Bush handling the rally chant for the team in 2006 and 2007. Brees took over the responsibility in 2008. Although it happened after the Super Bowl victory, Brees would create a chant in honor of his recently deceased grandfather, with whom he was close.
ACT 1
If you have read my other posts in this series, then you know of the sorry state of the Saints franchise in 2005. The team couldn’t play its way out of a brown paper bag. There were heated debates between the owner Tom Benson and the government of Louisiana. Hurricane Katrina just made things worse.
The indefatigable Steve Gleason writes the introduction to Duncan’s book. After Hurricane Katrina devastated the New Orleans area, including the home of his girlfriend’s family, he was sure the city would recover. He was not so sure about the Saints franchise. His concern goes back to when he first signed with the team after meeting with the talent scouts at a grungy restaurant with bars on the windows that served cold chicken from a buffet.
Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis hires Payton on January 18, 2006, not just for his energy, but also because he is a leader with a strong work ethic. Sean’s reputation is tarnished by the poor showing of the New York Giants offense during his short stint as their offensive coordinator. However, hiring him seems like divine intervention since he is named after Father Patrick Sean, “The Rosary Priest.” Both Loomis and Peyton want mentally tough players to form the foundation of the 2006 roster. Payton also knows there needs to be a change of culture among the players.
Meanwhile, Drew Brees is recovering from a catastrophic shoulder injury and being dropped by his agent.
FLASHBACK
Payton and Brees sheds additional light on the B Plot of Brees’s relationship with his mother, Mina Brees. She did not want him to play football until high school lest he injure himself and end a possible sports career early, which happened to her brother.
Mina divorced Drew’s father in 1987 when he was eight and his brother Reid was six. The siblings spent years split between their parents. Mina remarried a former Texas yell leader credited with inventing the “Hook ‘em Horns” hand single. The marriage lasted ten years.
Mina’s strong personality and willpower can be attributed to the fact that she was an all-star track runner, volleyball, and basketball player in high school. Her father was an All-American wishbone quarterback at Texas A&M. While this strong personality would damage many personal and business relationships, it benefited Drew’s career.
When Drew started playing for a high school team called the Chaparrals, he showed so little promise as a football player, least of all a quarterback, that he considered quitting. Mina convinced him to stay. Soon afterward the quarterback was injured and Drew was in position to replace him. Mina’s strong will is passed down to Drew, who overcomes the tearing of his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee to go on to an NFL career.
END OF FLASHBACK
Loomis and Sean’s first choice for quarterback is Matt Leinart but the draft is too high for the franchise. Meanwhile, Brees visits the Miami Dolphins, where the family of head coach Nick Saban dines him at Grille 66 & Bar in Fort Lauderdale while their wives take a boat cruise. New Orleans still has boats on top of houses. But, as you know, Saban listens to the franchise’s doctors and the Saints take a chance with Brees.
When Drew Brees is asked during a press conference if he has any fears, he replies…
“I don’t mind talking about it. I’ve got a big smile on the inside because I know where I am going to be in about four months. So all this speculation, especially during this process were people just like to kind of drag you down… they’ll be eating their words. It’s not the first time somebody said I couldn’t do it.”
Payton loved every word. He had gone head-to-head with Nick Saban and won. (Note: Who Dats still sore over Saban taking a coaching job with Alabama after years of coaching the LSU Tigers would enjoy seeing him get his “comeuppances”).
Sean begins to meet the team. At first, he thinks the longhaired Gleason is the team equipment manager. He shows the players a game in which the 2004 U. S. Olympic men’s basketball team played well but lost at the end despite having Lebron James and other talented players on the roster. He stresses the importance of work ethic, character, and putting the team first over individual talent. He is going to have to change the culture of complacency, half-hearted measures, and 75% effort. He emphasizes character both on and off the field. He encourages his players not to stop by the daiquiri shops on the way home or spend late hours on Bourbon Street.
2006 was going to the Year One.
Gleason is unsure if he should take this new coach seriously or not.
Act II
The new culture is philosophically born during a staffing coach meeting on February 6, 2006. Payton passes out the playbook for the Dallas Cowboys, the team where he had been assistant head coach to Bill Parcells. He borrowed strategies from other teams and coaches, but his overall method and mindset are rooted in Parcells.
If a meeting was at 8:30 a.m. in 2005, it would be at 8:00 a.m. in Year One.
The culture change was fully underway by the time the team arrived at their Mississippi training camp in the Summer of 2006. Wrong decisions would not be supported to satisfy egos or balance the books. During training camp Marques Colston, a Hofstra seventh-round draft pick, outperforms first-round pick Donte Stallworth. Stallworth is traded to another team before the camp is even over.
Payton asks Drew to address the team towards the end of training camp. Gleason feels nervous for him since he has only known the team for six months. Drew talks about work ethic, goals for the upcoming season, the characteristics necessary to achieve those goals, and how he believed they could win anything despite the bleakest of circumstances. By the time the speech is over, everyone knows that Drew, boosted by the confidence Sean has in him, will make a great leader.
But after winning only one out of four of the preseason games, Gleason begins to wonder if there had really been a culture change. Then the franchise stays at a grungy hotel with hinges falling off the doors. When Sean apologizes to the players and staff and assures them that from now on, he’ll do his best to see that they stay at the best accommodations, Gleason realizes that the culture is changing.
A set piece in the relationship between Payton and Brees would be during Bye Week, a time for players to rest and recharge after their first preseason game together in New Orleans. Sean and his staff work in the team’s practice facility Friday afternoon. Payton looks out and sees Drew in a t-shirt and practice shorts throwing a football at the far endzone.
Payton walks out to the practice field and asks him what he is doing. Brees said he was trying to keep his body in condition and routine. “Well, I hope we’re winning,” says an impressed Payton.
Payton was impressed by Brees’ attention to detail which he had learned the importance of while working under Bill Parcells. Coaching under the Cowboy’s head coach was like graduate school. Parcells was his mentor, like a football Gandalf, who had advised him to turn down a head coaching job for the Raiders in 2004 because he did not believe he was ready for the position.
Without getting lost in some weird Freudian and Jungian complexes, it is easy to see that a father-son relationship between Payton and Parcells could easily serve as a B Plot that humanizes the Saints’ head coach. It could complement Brees’ B Plot with his mother, showing the personal trials and tribulations of two outwardly tough men who hold the weight of a broken city and region on their shoulders as they lead their team to victory.
Payton puts up signs around the Saints’ training facility inspired by his time with the Dallas Cowboys. In the training room, he puts a sign that reads: NEW ORLEANS SAINTS TIGHT ENDS MUSTS: SMART. TOUGH AND AGGRESSIVE. COMPETITIVE. RELENTLESS. In the team’s receivers training room, he hangs a sign that says: YOU MUST BE A DETAILED PLAYER AT A DETAILED POSITION. Another sign said: SAINTS PLAYERS WILL BE: SMART. TOUGH, DISCIPLINED AND WELL-CONIDITIONED. To Brees, he gives Parcells’s 10 Commandments for Quarterbacks, which include, “A Quarterback Throws With His Legs More Than His Arms,” “Know Your Job,” “Know Your Own Players, “Be The Same Guy Every Day,” “You Must Learn To Manage The Game,” and, “Don’t Be A Celebrity Quarterback.”
Team players and staff members say that the Ghost of Bill Parcells ran the franchise. It was, “Bill this. Bill that. This is how Bill does it in Dallas.” “What Would Bill Do?” became a slogan around the training facility. Payton’s speech was full of Parcells-isms. His methods are Parcellscan. To keep players from becoming complacent, he laid mouse traps around the training facility to remind the players, “Don’t eat the cheese.” He gave the players baseball bats to remind them to “Bring the Wood.” (Note: This method of motivation roused Reggie Bush so much during one game that he ran out of the tunnel with a bat and held it so tightly on the sideline that people avoided him). Scott Fujita, who played for Parcells before joining the Saints’ roster in 2009, said that Bill and Sean could both be down to earth but also took things seriously, putting a lot of pressure on the players.
The influence of Parcells on Payton did cause some to view Payton warily. Bill Parcells was known to move from job to job. Would Payton? Just how long would he stay with the Saints?
Payton loses the first game, “battle” if you will, against his former coach, “father” in a manner of speaking, on August 21, 2006, 30-7. Then he goes on to defeat Parcells in other games, including the memorable December 10th game in which Brees remembers seeing a steady stream of blue, white, and silver exiting the stadium as a flow of black and gold came down the bleacher steps to be closer to the field. But in the end, after Payton wins by proving himself to be his own man, he and Parcells maintain a good relationship, the old mentor exhorting Payton’s team right before he leads them to their final battle at the Super Bowl, the end of their quest.
As Payton makes his way out of Parcells’ shadow, he develops the reputation of a rebel, someone difficult to work with. He is obsessing-compulsive, micromanaging the smallest detail, like the size of a Christmas tree in the lobby.
During games, Payton becomes Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Usually professional and calm, he becomes wrathful to anyone who makes mistakes or gets in his way. Players who come off the field after making a bad play avoid him and his glassy stare. During the heartbreaking loss against the Chicago Bears at the end of the 2006 season (Midpoint of Act Two), wide receiver coach Curtis Johnson was assigned to keep Payton calm and received a chewing out for his troubles. “You get away from me,” Payton yelled. “Don’t touch me!” Staff member Joe Lombardi says that Payton is a great coach to work for 349 days out of the year
Payton spars with reporters and audience members alike. When fans and rivals try to jeer him with reminders of his days as a scab during the 1987 NFL Players Association strike, he applauds them after a victorious game. His spirit endears him to the people of New Orleans, who celebrate passion and eccentricity. It’s a strain on General Manager Loomis who has to save face for the franchise and keep Payton’s ambition in check.
But Payton learns to work with Loomis, choosing the mentally strong players who become the core of the Super Bowl championship team. In a movie about the Saints helping New Orleans recover from Hurricane Katrina, Payton’s character arc would be him becoming less of a jerk, to put it nicely. None other than Bill Parcells notices Payton maturing.
While Payton is becoming his own man, Drew is going the distance to become the best quarterback that the Saints ever had. He watches tapes of other teams playing for hours on end, often into the weekend, as he pays attention to detail and studies the body language of his future opponents. He times, gauges the speed and distance, and anticipates the actions of other players. To his teammates, he is an encyclopedia of football knowledge. He drives through the fog on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, so he’ll be the first player on the practice field.
The other players come to respect, admire, and be awed by Drew. Lombardi compares Brees to a character in the movie Pulp Fiction who was a fixer because “He solves problems.” Offensive tackle Jon Stinchcomb calls Drew a supercomputer, constantly calculating odds. He recalls a 2009 New York Jets game where Brees was consistently one step ahead of the unconventional pass rush scheme of coach Rex Bryan. He made split-second decisions and made all the players look good.
This cerebral part of football is often left unexplored in football movies. It is different than the high-energy training montages and rough-and-tumble antics on the field that we are used to in sports films. The quieter moments of strong mental headspace, dedication, diligence, consistency, study, and attention to detail required to create a winning sports team deserve an arthouse film. But a film about the New Orleans Saints deserves to be told with high-energy montages to honor the passion, resilience, and carnival spirit of the people of the Gulf Coast and their excitement at seeing their team go to the Super Bowl.
Together Payton’s change of culture and Brees’ mental diligence create an era of winning for the Saints franchise. A highlight of the Payton-Brees era is their willingness to allow a player or two in on the game planning. It creates inclusivity that instills confidence in the players whose strengths and skills are given important attention. Payton brings out the best in players like Reggie Bush and Deuce McAllister by putting them in positions on the field where their talents shine. However, this does not stop Payton from cross-training receivers at different positions on the field.
The second half of Act Two focuses on Drew and Sean’s developing partnership and Brees creating a culture of competitiveness with his fellow players. When the team goes sea fishing out of Port Sulphur Louisiana, Drew’s boat is the last to return with the most fish. As Act Two draws closer to the 2009 season, we see examples of how Drew’s dedication and his partnership with Sean are paying off.
Drew becomes an expert in biomechanics and learns to throw the ball with a kinetic chain of delivery. His throw at their 2008 game against the San Diego Chargers, the team that dropped him after his injury, in London is still talked about today. He completed a 15-yard pass to Billy Miller who was running a 12-yard cut in the third quarter to secure a win. It wasn’t until later when the staff was watching the video that it became apparent just what Brees had accomplished. He had thrown the ball in a cut to his right to a player 10 yards behind him despite the surrounding chaos. The Chargers had parted like the Red Sea for Moses. It caused offensive coordinator Pete Carmicheal to ask, “Who threw that ball?!”
In 2008 Drew Brees is named the NFL Offensive Player of the Year, the first for the franchise, as he became the second quarterback in NFL history to pass more than 5,000 yards in a season. An example of the effective teamwork created by Payton and Brees is on full display during the November 24, 2008, game against the Green Bay Packers, who had just beaten the Chicago Bears 37-3. In the first major outburst of the Payton-Brees partnership, the Saints scored eight of their nine drives. Brees completed 20 of 27 passes for 323 yards and four touchdowns. The final score was 51-29, Saints. In a post-game interview, Brees credited his Four Horsemen, receivers Marques Colston, Devery Henderson, Robert Meachem, and Lance Moore.
Drew learns to think like a coach. Payton begins to think like a player. Soon both of them are thinking alike. An example is during their October 6th, 2009, game when Miami led the Saints, 24-3. Brees convinces Payton to go for the touchdown. Payton agrees. And they came back to claim a 46-34 victory!
Duncan’s book details the strategies of the different games during the Saints’ 2009 season. Drew has a triangle read in which two inside receivers cut across the field from left to right while three receivers go deep on vertical routes. In their October 18th game against the New York Giants, Drew reads the body language of and targets an inexperienced target safety seven times, resulting in five passes for 96 yards, five first downs, and two touchdowns. Even when the Giants figured out the Saints’ game plan it was too late to recover. In 33 pass plays, they failed to sack Brees and managed to hit him only twice. It was like Payton knew their every move. The Giants’ 48-27 defeat was the worst they suffered in decades.
Six weeks later the Saints played one of the best teams in the league, the New England Patriots. They scored long methodical drives and even a 75-yard strike. Long sluggo seam routs, screen passes, and a dump to a tight end resulted in scores. Brees, protected by his tight ends, threw touchdown passes to five different receivers. His passing performance of 16.1 yards per attempt during the game was the best of his career and one of the greatest statistical achievements in NFL history. Many commentators thought it was impossible in the modern NFL, especially against the New England Patriots. Patriots coach Bill Belichick removed Tom Brady from the field with 5:00 left on the clock. During a press conference after the 38-17 defeat, Belichick admitted that not only were the Saints the best team they had played that year, but that they had been better than the Patriots in every way.
Act II ends with the Saints losing the last three games of the regular season, the scandal of Mina Brees’ suicide, and the NFL trying to trademark the phrase Who Dat, corporatism vs localism. Payton and Brees explains why the Saints lost their game in Week 17 of the 2009 season. They rested their starters.
ACT III
Sean and Drew learn to take each day at a time as they head to the big game with the hopes and dreams of an entire city and region on their shoulders. During the climactic Super Bowl game, we see the results of four years of training and partnership. Payton interchanges the positions of Colston, Henderson, Meachem, and Moore throughout the game, targeting favorable matchups on the Colts team like chess pieces. They attack the Colts on all three levels, deep, intermediate, and short, all five skilled positioned players on every play. The Colts’ defensive coordinator described the Saints offense as a “mix between dinkin’ it and lettin’ ‘er go.”
The full effect of the Payton and Brees partnership is displayed when the coach is ready for new ideas. Sometimes the crazier the better. The famous ambush onside kick that tipped the momentum of the game in the Saints’ favor is a result of Payton listening to Brees.
The Saints’ Super Bowl victory is a great emotional catharsis for New Orleans and the people of the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. It was a true miracle that only a saint could accomplish. As former Saints backup quarterback Luke McCown says, “[It is like] The Hand of God reached down and touched Drew and said, ‘You’re going to be the most accurate guy to ever throw a football.’”
Conclusion
Since Payton and Brees arrived in 2006, every Saints game in the Superdome has been sold out. On November 18, 2018, they gave the Philadelphia Eagles the worst defeat on record against a defending World Champion team, 48-7. Duncan believes that statues of Payton and Brees will be built and Drews #9 will be retired. Their legacies are forever intractably intertwined.
I believe their legacies should be honored with a movie. While taking a workshop in movie producing with the New York Film Academy, I had to create a producer’s package based on a preexisting IP. The IP I chose was Coming Back Stronger by Drew Brees. My cast included Dennis Quaid as Sean Payton, Jake Gyllenhaal as Drew Brees, Jon Voight as Saints owner Tom Benson, and Laura Dern as Mina Brees. My instructors were impressed with the story, the emotional elements, and comps, films with similar themes and set pieces like The Blindside, and believed that it was one of the few films that, instead of targeting a niche audience, would appeal to everyone. With our society trying to recover from COVID-19, our fractured political environment, and, most recently, the stock market crash, audiences would want to go to see an uplifting story about a city recovering and bouncing back after destruction. My instructors encouraged me to pursue the project for real.
That is why I am sorry that I don’t update this blog as regularly as I desire and should. I admire Drew for and should emulate his dedication and consistency as I learn more about screenplay writing and the producing side of the business. As a resident of Louisiana, I want to see and help the story of the New Orleans Saints’ road to Super Bowl victory be filmed in the Cresent City and the Pelican State and am working toward that goal.
Because it is an emotional and inspirational story of recovery after disaster that would appeal to a broad audience looking for encouragement is why I believe that the New Orleans Saints’ Super Bowl Victory as told in books like Payton and Brees by Jeff Ducan Should Be A Movie filmed in Louisiana.
