It would be easy for interim to the interim Saints coach Aaron Kromer to paint himself and his team as martyrs or victims.
But he said Monday, he’s less interested in that than his players continuing to keep their focus on their football and not the suspensions that have taken away their first two choices to coach and several players.
During his first Monday press conference as the boss, the offensive line coach said he wasn’t into comparisons to Hurricane Isaac, which just rolled through his region.
“The Gulf Coast is always on our mind,” Kromer said, via Larry Holder of the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “I talked to the team this morning about that adversity and that this isn’t adversity, having a new coach, Game 1, having Joe Vitt during the preseason, having Sean Payton have to leave when he did. That’s not adversity. That’s an opportunity for all of us to step up. Adversity is when your house is flooded and you can’t go home.
“And that’s what we talked about that those are the things in life that you’re going to find out about yourself. And our guys over time have realized that the fans and the people in this area can always bounce back. And we live by that. No matter what happens, we know the community is going to bounce back. And we know the community has our back and we have the community’s back.”
It was an easy message to sell in his locker room, which has had time to adjust to the missing coach Sean Payton for months.
But because of that, Kromer thinks the players are able to handle the adjustment.
“Well the only thing you can guarantee is change,” Kromer said. “Things are going to change, but we’re been around long enough to adapt. We’ve always said here that we adapt better than anyone in the NFL. We adjust better than anyone. Things don’t distract us. We don’t let little things bother us. We worry about the big things.
“We keep the main thing the main thing is what we talk about today. Make sure when you show up in this office that we are focused on what we’re doing. And we have never, it’s been Sean’s way to never let little things bother the organization and become a distraction. So if we have something happen, we’ll adjust. We’re ready.”
We’ll find that out Sunday against the Redskins.