Parcells Is a Long Shot but Payton Clearly Wants Saints to Win During Absence

ESPN's Chris Mortensen reports that New Orleans Saints head coach (until April 1st, anyway) Sean Payton has reached out to his mentor, retired coach/GM/all-around-Grand-NFL-Poobah Bill Parcells, about coaching the Saints while he serves his year-long suspension stemming from his involvement in Bountygate. 

This is a good headline-grabber but ultimately a long shot. Mortensen listed several reasons why on air and reiterated one in his online report:

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One complication is that Parcells, who was among the 10 finalists as a nominee for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, would have to wait another five years once an interim coaching post is completed under the Hall of Fame's bylaws. One Hall of Fame official said the bylaws would have to be changed but did agree it is a unique situation that could merit discussion. The five-year Hall of Fame clock may not have to be restarted if Parcells took a role with the Saints that did not specifically involve coaching.

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Whether this actually ends up happening is beside the point in my mind. To me, Payton reaching out to Parcells shows us how badly he wants to win. He knows Bountygate and the attendant punishments have a very good chance of flushing the Saints' season down the drain, and he wants to do everything he can to make sure that doesn't happen. 

Parcells would give the team a rock-solid core when it came to authority and respectability, but more importantly, they would be in the hands of one of the better football minds in the history of the game, not to mention a master of motivation. 

I understand Josh's misgiving on how effective Parcells could be in this situation, but to my thinking there would simply be no way a team under the cloud of Bountygate would be allowed to succumb to a victim's mentality with Parcells around.

You can bet Parcells would respond like his old assistant Bill Belichick did to Spygate. Parcells would put his team in an ultimate Us vs. Them mentality, and he would be sure they would play up to their talent level. 

Again, this is an extreme long shot on Payton's part, but it's an encouraging sign for Saints fans in that he won't be leaving a single option unexplored when it comes to finding the man who will take his place while he sits on the sidelines (or possibly in a FOX Sports studio) for the 2012 NFL season.