The National Football League, just as does other high-profile professional sports, has a long reach through the country. Sunday’s first-round playoff game between the visiting Chicago Bears and host New Orleans Saints will not absorb all of the fans’ cheer for the Bears, 8-8 as an at-large team which qualified for the playoffs on Sunday’s final day.
The Saints, 12-4 as the National Football Conference South Division champion will have more than a few fans pulling for them. Their head coach, Sean Payton, was graduated from Eastern Illinois University in 1987, four years following graduation from Naperville Central High School, where he was the starting quarterback his senior season.
Payton is the second-longest tenured head football coach in the NFL, behind Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots. Payton’s contract with the Saints runs through the 2024 season. His pinnacle was leading the Saints to the Super Bowl championship in 2013. He had coached as an assistant at four colleges an was an assistant coach with four NFL, last prior to becoming head coach at New Orleans in 2006. His final step prior to the Saints was three years with the Dallas Cowboys, 2003-2005, as assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach. He was the quarterbacks coach at the University of Illinois in 1996, his final college coaching stop prior to becoming quarterback coach with the Philadelphia Eagles, 1997-1998.
His head coaching won-loss record in the regular season in the NFL was 143-81. He begins postseason play with an 8-7 record in the playoffs.
As a player he had limited time in the NFL, however, with the Chicago Bears in 1987. He was with three other teams in 1987, the Chicago Bruisers, Pittsburgh Gladiators, and the Ottawa Rough Riders. Prior to starting as a coach in 1988 with San Diego State University, he was a player with the Leicester Panthers in 1988. Today’s Bears are underdogs, however, they are in the playoffs and reaching the first goal is the starting point. Hope springs eternal.
The Bears’ progress this season has been intermittent, however, they did not finish below .500. Mitch Trubisky has shown signs of improvement as the starting quarterback, however, will he return to the Bears next season?
Payton is not the only quarterback and coach from our northern Illinois area in the NFL. Mike Zimmer, who played at Lockport High School as a quarterback, is the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings finished with a 7-9 record this season, one game behind the Bears in the NFC North.
Who will wait till next year?