During their march through the playoffs, the New Orleans Saints have battered and bruised (and nearly broken) two future Hall of Fame quarterbacks -- Kurt Warner of the Cardinals and Brett Favre of the Vikings.
They’re now setting their sights on a third man whose oversized forehead eventually will be memorialized in bronze.
Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams recently told a Nashville radio station that the Saints plan to rattle Colts quarterback Peyton Manning by hitting him whenever they can, and that the goal is to knock him out of the game.
“This guy’s got a great clock in his head,” Williams told 104.5 The Zone, via ESPN.com. “The big thing is that he
throws the ball so early that we’re going to have to do a good job of
finding ways to get to him and when we do get to him we’re going to
have to make sure he gets a couple ‘remember me’ shots when we get there.”
The Saints applied several “remember me” shots to Favre on Sunday, prompting many a Vikings fan to utter a phrase that for broadcast television purposes would be edited to sound like “forget you.” One such hit to Favre’s legs didn’t draw a flag, even though NFL V.P. of officiating Mike Pereira admitted last night that a roughing the passer penalty should have been called.
And Williams won’t be reeling in his troops for the Super Bowl. Instead, it sounds like he’s willing to risk a few 15-yard walk-offs if it means that Manning eventually will be carted off the field.
“When you put too much of that type of worry on a
warrior’s mind, he doesn’t play all out,” Williams said. “If it happens, it happens. And
the only thing you’d like for me to say is that if it happens you hope
he doesn’t get back up and play again.”
You hope he doesn’t get back up and play again. (We wonder what Archie thinks about his former team’s objectives?)
In other words, “We’ll gladly trade a penalty or two if it means that we get to see Curtis Painter instead of Peyton Manning.”
In other words, the NFL should consider fining not only the players when dirty hits are applied to quarterbacks, but also their coaches.