Former Football: Game pressure, not air pressure, fueled Delhomme

Bob Tompkins, Town Talk, June 26, 2015

Jake Delhomme (right) high-fives Buck Moncla during the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Celebrity Pro-Am Friday at Oak Wing Golf Club Friday.(Photo: Melinda Martinez/The Town Talk)

Jake Delhomme hates the “black cloud” over the NFL created by “Deflategate,” but the former Carolina Panthers quarterback from Breaux Bridge can’t relate.

He can relate, in a different way, to the famous quarterback whose fate is in the hands of Roger Goodell, describing himself as “a huge Tom Brady fan.”

But this Cajun-bred quarterback, who nearly led his team to an upset of the Brady-led New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVIII to cap the 2003 season, said he was never “overly particular” about the inflation measurements of the footballs he used.

“If I had been concerned (with the balls’ air pressure),” he said Friday, “my focus would not have been on what it was supposed to be on.”

Brady was suspended by the NFL in May for four games because a 243-page report by its attorney concluded it was “more probable than not” that Brady was “at least generally aware” that footballs he used in a 45-7 win over Indianapolis in the AFC championship game on Jan. 18 were improperly deflated by team personnel. Brady spent 10 hours the other day, making his case in a hearing with the NFL commissioner.

“I wish he’d said, ‘I only asked that the balls be on the bottom side of the threshold, and if they were less than that, I apologize,’ and I think people would’ve been OK with that. I understand how people are upset because of Spygate and this is an accumulation of things (the Patriots have been accused of), but I hate the cloud this has been created because I have too much respect for Tom Brady.”

Delhomme, now a full-time, third-generation trainer of thoroughbred horses with his father and brother, was at the OakWing Golf Club in Alexandria Friday. Although he is not much of a golfer, he took part in the Celebrity Pro-Am golf tournament that is part of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame weekend that concludes with the induction ceremonies for him and several others Saturday night in Natchitoches.

Delhomme will become the 10th quarterback to be inducted into the state’s sports shrine, joining Terry Bradshaw, Joe Ferguson, James “Shack” Harris, Bobby Hebert, Stan Humphries, Bert Jones, Archie Manning, Y.A. Tittle and Doug Williams.

The man Delhomme most looked up to among that group of elite quarterbacks was Manning, whom he idolized as a child and later met while working the first Manning Football Camp in Hammond in 1995. A fellow worker at the camp was Archie’s son, Peyton. Archie’s youngest son, Eli, was an eighth-grader at that camp.

Another football family name dear to Delhomme’s heart is Stokley, having been recruited and coached at UL Lafayette (then USL) by Nelson Stokley and having teamed with Stokley’s son, wide receiver Brandon, for three winning seasons with the Cajuns as Delhomme ended his college career as the all-time Louisiana college passing leader with 9,216 yards.

Brandon, who retired in 2013 after 15 seasons with five different NFL teams, “might be the most competitive son of a gun on the face of the earth,” he said.

Coach Stokley, a former LSU quarterback whose playing career was cut short by injuries, made Delhomme the only true freshman quarterback to start for a Division I-A school in 1993.

“He let me play; he let me compete,” said Delhomme. “I had free reign, but he was a coach who had my back.”

In his six years as a reserve with the Saints, Jim Haslett’s offensive coordinator, Mike McCarthy, now the head coach with the Green Bay Packers, “helped me grow as a quarterback,” he said. “Under him, I learned how to prepare.”

He may not have played as much with the Saints as the fans wanted, but he said he wasn’t ready for Prime Time then, and the time was right when he blossomed in his first season with Carolina. Throwing the winning touchdown pass on the first play of a second overtime to beat top-seeded St. Louis on the road in the Cougars’ first playoff game was the sweetest part of that season, he said.

Widely respected through his career for his humility, down-home good humor and friendliness mixed with a fiery competitive nature, Jake traced those traits to the way he and his older brother, Jeff, were raised in “a strong Catholic household” by his parents, Jerry and Marcia.

“We were taught to respect elders and authority, and to work our butts off if we wanted to be successful,” he said. “I’m not a big blue-ribbon person, believing everybody gets a ribbon. I tell my two daughters (ages 12 and 8) that. I explain to them that not everything’s going to be easy, that you’ve got to work for anything that’s worth something.”

Bob Tompkins is the storyteller for he Town Talk. Connect with him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cthestoryteller and Twitter @Btom_TownTalk.