SmashMouth

Nick Saban: NFL doctors may have missed on Dylan Moses like they did on Drew Brees

Fifteen years after the fact, former Dolphins coach Nick Saban remains miffed that Dolphins doctors deemed the shoulder of quarterback Drew Brees unfit for NFL competition. (We probably could have ended that sentence after the word “miffed.”) Those same doctors nevertheless embraced the prospect of sending a second-round pick to the Vikings for quarterback Daunte Culpepper and his wrecked knee.

“Don’t forget, when I was the coach of the Miami Dolphins, doctors failed Drew Brees on a physical,” Saban recently told reporters regarding the fact that Alabama linebacker Dylan Moses went undrafted due to a knee injury. “From that time on [Brees] made about 14 Pro Bowls, won a Super Bowl, passed for I don’t know how many thousands of yards. So I guess they make mistakes, too.”

So let’s make sure we understand this. Saban, a micromanaging control freak, wanted Drew Brees. But team doctors weren’t comfortable with his surgically-repaired shoulder. And Saban just shrugged, unwrapped another Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pie, and said, “Let’s give up a second-round pick for a mobile quarterback with three torn ligaments in the most important joint on his body.”

A football coach with full control over football operations controls everything. If he has any doubts about the medical opinions he has received, if he has any inkling that his own doctors are being unreasonably cautious, he can get a second opinion. Or a third one. He can keep hiring doctors to comment on whether a given player can play until the coach finds someone who will say what he wants.

Indeed, Saints coach Sean Payton found a doctor who passed Brees on a physical.

Saban can (and does) put all the blame on doctors he supervised and employed. The truth is that, if Saban wanted Drew Brees, Saban would have had Drew Brees. At the end of the day, Saban made one of the all-time personnel whiffs in league history.

That’s not on the doctors or anyone else. That’s on him.

Rugby Saint II

I'm not blaming the Dolphins. I'm celebrating their stupidity.

WhoDat!656

Some of the comments are golden!

The Dude

I’ll fess up, I wanted Culpepper too. Glad I don’t know ****.

jeanpierre

Still can't believe Brees fell into our laps, really thought he might even sit out versus coming to a flooded, corrupt New Orleans...

Glad he was even more of a competitor than I anticipated...

The Dude

I don’t know. I’m wondering if Brees was really all that different than anyone else we could have gotten. Payton may have been just as successful with a former first round pick who never really panned out along with
an athletic freak who had a lot of potential and could be used in other aspects of the game. I guess we will never know......

AsylumGuido

I had no doubt he'd come. I was following his career closely prior to his being let go from the Chargers. As an NC State fan I closely followed the program once they selected Philip Rivers. I was hoping Rivers would get the chance to play. Brees bowed up and played great. He said all the right things and showed tremendous leadership. I was pumped as hell when I heard we had the chance of signing him. I bought his jersey before he ever played a preseason game and wore it every game for his entire Saints career. I knew if anyone could come to New Orleans it would be Brees. He was nothing but class before any of our fans ever heard of him. He proved to be exactly what I expected.

Then again, I do have a more optimistic outlook than some others, for sure.

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill

AsylumGuido

No. Brees is an extremely exceptional person and the perfect person at the time for the Saints, the city of New Orleans, the state of Louisiana, and the entire gulf region.

The Dude

How many hours a day do you spend sitting at your computer hitting refresh?

AsylumGuido

17