Leadership question answered
 

Q: Do you think of yourself as a leader?

Delhomme: “I don’t think you can teach leadership. I don’t care what anybody says, you can try all you want but you want the guys to know you mean it. The guys can tell if it’s fake, if it’s false enthusiasm or what not. I feel I am a leader, but I feel I am a leader in the right way. I prepare well and I am going to do whatever I can to win for them. I think that’s the first thing. When I am out on the field, if it’s me trying to throw a block, I’m going to try and throw a block. I may get teased about it the next day in film but that’s fine with me because I know they see that I’m trying to do whatever it takes to win. I’ll try whatever it takes. I’m a rah-rah guy, meaning that I get fired up but I’m not one to get on somebody, because you have to know. As quarterback you have to be part psychologist half the time. You have to know who to pat and who to chew out. You just develop good relationships with guys. If that adds up to being a leader, then I guess it does. It’s just something I have done all my life. You want to get guys to believe in you and play for you.�

http://www.profootballweekly.com/PFW...meQA013004.htm

Leadership question answered
 

Man could the Saints use that kind of attitude and intelligence at the quarterback position?!

Leadership question answered
 

\"I’m a rah-rah guy, meaning that I get fired up but I’m not one to get on somebody, because you have to know.\"

What the heck does that mean? That isn\'t even gramatical. I\'m not trying to get on Jake, but that doesn\'t sound like anything to me - why would you think that was intelligent?

Either way, this doesn\'t sound like what you guys want in a leader at all! You guys who have been ragging on AB have all said he doesn\'t get on people like he should, he\'s too happy (rah-rah) and so on; Haz is a terrible coach because he doesn\'t hold people accoutable, and so on. Here is Jake saying that he doesn\'t think that he\'d get on somebody about their bad play and suddenly he\'s the greatest leader of all time?

This, and sorry to sound like a sad-sack, is no answer at all to the leadership question. In fact, all Jake said is \"I do what I do, and I try hard.\" Wow, that is insightful.

Leadership question answered
 

No, what he actually said, if you would include the line after that was, \"you have to be part psychologist half the time. You have to know who to pat and who to chew out.\" That is EXACTLY the right way to be, seeing how not everyone reacts the same way to correction. And whatever he\'s doing must work because it goes without saying he took the starting job and for WHATEVER reason he\'s led them to the Superbowl. Could someone else have done it for the Panthers besides Jake? Who cares, the fact remains he was under center, he did it, and he\'s there. History will not say, oh, it\'s because of this and that, and this happened just right. Nope, it will say Jake Delhomme, in his first season as a starter, led the Carolina Panthers to the Superbowl.

Leadership question answered
 

Actually, the reason that I didn\'t include the second sentence is because it might well be in contradiction with the one I did quote. If he knows who to chew out, why would he say this: \"I’m a rah-rah guy, meaning that I get fired up but I’m not one to get on somebody\"? It is because he sees he needs to chew someone out and doesn\'t, or doesn\'t like it, or figures his psychology will help him? It is totally unlcear - thus, it says nothing about how to lead (though, Cassady, I agree with you that people respond differently to criticism of different kinds - so, IF Jake is saying that, then I agree he has shown ONE characteristic of being a leader). Also, the nature of Jake\'s entire quote is just as I noted, \"I just go out there and be myself\". I am fully willing to grant that Jake is a leader (whether I agree or not), but this statement by Jake says NOTHING about what it is to be a leader - he even ends with \"if that adds up to being a leader, then I guess it does\" which seems to indicate that Jake himself was not trying to say what it is to be a leader.

If all history is going to say is, \"Jake Delhomme, in his first season as a starter, led the Carolina Panthers to the Superbowl\", then it also will tell us nothing about being a leader. This whole post has resolved nothing about leadership at all - other than some people think that Jake is one.

Furthermore, if someone else could have \"led the Panthers to the superbowl\", then I would say that that guy would have to be a leader too - otherwise, what you have said is that Jake is NOT a leader. Thus, the question \"could someone else have taken them there\" is very important if you are someone who thinks that Jake clearly is a leader (and I personally am going to suspend judgement on that for now).

Leadership question answered
 

As long as I\'m on a rant, and probably not making friends, here is another thing I don\'t think is right:

\"I don’t think you can teach leadership\"

Does that mean that whether or not you are a leader is purely genetic? That is ridiculous. How you are raised, who your role models are, who you\'ve learned from, what your childhood was like, and so much more, are things that influence your leadership qualities. Thus, you do learn to be a leader. (I\'m sure all Jake meant is that it takes a long time to learn to be a leader, NOT that it can\'t be taught at all.) Being a good role model is a great way to teach leadership - that is, leaders create other leaders, AND that is a kind of teaching!

Leadership question answered
 

Is leadership purely genetic....not exclusively, but more often than not. There are persons that can be groomed to be leaders, but yet there are others that just have that natural personality trait. No one sits down with these guys and says \"This is how you can be a leader\", just like others are naturally shy, overbearing, or obnoxious.

I will support the Saints even through their bonehead moves(and it seems like there are enough to go around every year), but I don\'t see how you can defend the Saints on the Delhomme issue. Supporting Brooks is one thing(and I support Brooks)but trying to distort the obvious to support him is another. We DO need to face facts though...AB will be with NO for at least the next year. We have to hope that we can ride the wave of offensive talent that we have, because it\'s obvious that AB doesn\'t have the leadership to will our team to win. He\'s not the best, but he\'s the best we have.

[Edited on 1/2/2004 by GoldenTomb]

Leadership question answered
 

Just for the record...

the sentence actually was:
\"I’m a rah-rah guy, meaning that I get fired up but I’m not one to get on somebody because you have to, y\' know.\"



[Edited on 1/2/2004 by codename47]

Leadership question answered
 

Actually, he seems pretty devoid of emotion as a leader, except for his lackadasical approach to the game. Maybe this is why the Saints don\'t buy Brooks\' attempts at being a leader - \"The guys can tell if it’s fake, if it’s false enthusiasm or what not.\"

Leadership question answered
 

codename47, thanks for the reprint, it makes a lot more sense now. Jake sounds much smarter as a result. (But, really, I was just trying to stir up some trouble on one of my favorite topics - leadership.)

WhoDat, I think I can agree that AB seems to be fairly devoid of emotion during the games I\'ve seen. However, I don\'t know if I have any evidence one way or another about whether or not AB puts up false fronts. Your hypothesis seems like a good one, but I\'d need to hear more to decide what I thought.

Now that I\'m feeling a bit more in my right mind, I was merely questionning whether or not Jake\'s quote told us anything about being a leader. Here is my conclusion so far: Jake\'s quote says a few things that indicate he has leadership qualities (the point about motivating guys in different ways), but it doesn\'t really say much, on the whole, about whether or not he IS a leader or leadership in general.

[Edited on 1/2/2004 by JKool]

Leadership question answered
 

NEWS ALERT!!

Get over it, no matter if Jake should have been subbed for Aaron in 2002 when his hsoulder went out....Jake is not on our team. I know he\'s a good leader, I\'ve seen him play in person and the kid has heart.

BUT....Jake is a Panther and not a Saint. I saw something during the Cowboys game this past season (sure the game was meaningless, I\'m sure I\'ll hear that). I\'m trying to remember what it was but if I remember right Brooks sure was extremely supportive of his players in that game. I\'m sorry if I can\'t remember specifics (which I expect to criticized on) because I have erased the 2003 season from my memory in prep for the 2004 season, but Aaron consistently wet up to his players after big plays and TDs and patted them on the back, hugged them, etc. Also, didn\'t Aaron lay a huge block during the River City Relay?

Aaron does have his bad points but so does Jake. We all have to be bit more open minded and not just see what we want to see. It\'s like chicken little who makes everyone believe the sky is falling; everyone points out all the bad things Aaron does and not the good things and then here we are talking about how much better some other teams QB is than ours.

We have a good QB people. Several QBs have needed time to grow before greatness...one that sticks out is Brett Favre. There\'s a quote appropriate for this....

\"Rome wasn\'t built in a day\"

Leadership question answered
 

Agreed

But wasn\'t it\'s lackadasical leadership that caused it\'s fall from greatness ???... ;)

Leadership question answered
 

alsaints113.

Look, I already agreed with you that Jake is not our QB in your earlier post. Also, your point about AB during the Cowboys game is on topic, and thank you - THAT was worth considering.

HOWEVER, quit trying to make people stop discussing things. If you\'re not interested, that is fine, but other people are. I\'m still not sure why you persist in telling people that they boring you?

Leadership question answered
 

JKool,

Never in my last post did I say people were boring me and never did I say for people to stop discussing this topic.

Maybe you should read a little closer. I was simply saying that both Jake and Aaron have their plusses and minuses and that some people have to be a bit open minded about the whole thing. Some people are Jake Jake Jake and some are Aaron Aaron Aaron. I for one consider myself Saints Saints Saints and feel that this being a Saints fan site, everyone else should be too.

saintz08....you were right about Rome, but that lackadaisacal leadership came after their greatness. We havent gotten there yet so lets hope once we do that it doesnt happen to us....at least not for a while (like the Eagles)

Leadership question answered
 

Sure seems like there are some issues within the team itself ..... ;)

News alert alasaint , Joe Horn is the Saints starting receiver .... ;)

Leadership question answered
 

alsaints113, I did read your post, and I was commenting on this sentence: \"Get over it, no matter if Jake should have been subbed for Aaron in 2002 when his hsoulder went out....Jake is not on our team.\" This sure seemed like a call for people to shut up. I\'m sorry that I must have taken it the wrong way, but certainly you can see how someone might misinterpret such a sentence. I don\'t think that my reading was the problem.

Also, I\'m not sure what is making you think that people here are not \"SAINTS SAINTS SAINTS\"? Jake was on our team, and no matter how boring I find it, people are talking about what the SAINTS organization is doing right or wrong, which is clearly about the Saints. Sometimes we talk about great teams of the past; that isn\'t wrong is it? Is talking about people like Sam Mills wrong (or somehow Un-Saintly) because he isn\'t on our team anymore?

08, I saw your quote earlier and tried to resist (of course this is not why you\'re posting it, so don\'t take this as a comment against you or your post): \"I don\'t care how many classes you take. They can\'t teach you how to be a leader.\" Joe is right about this, but only in context. What he means is that CLASSES cannot teach you to be a leader, but certainly he doesn\'t mean that you cannot learn (whether directly or indirectly) to be a leader. Surely Joe Horn does not have a well enough developed theory of genetics to make him think that being a leader is purely genetic (as I noted earlier). Right?

Leadership question answered
 

See your point JKool , and between you and I neither one of us probably expects Joe Horn to ever end up on a trial stand as the leading foremost authority on learned leadership skills .

The interesting part is that Horn says \"I don\'t care how many classes you take. They can\'t teach you how to be a leader.\" Now to the knowledge of Saints fans , Brooks was the one taking those so called \" leadership classes \" .

Horn most likely has been chewed by the Saints organization for the receiver coach firing comments . He had made some comments about Brooks before the Giants game and supposedly so did Mc Allister , they made reference to them during the game and that was some point as to why Horn gave Brooks a ball .

Turley was suspected of calling Brooks out and challengeing him and his leadership ability , Horn has made these statements and suddenly McAllister supposedly wants to renegotiate .

The offense could be melting before our very eyes . Why else is Horn willing to put his job on the line and bash the Head Coach ???


[Edited on 2/2/2004 by saintz08]

Leadership question answered
 

These are dark days my friends....dark days....I would be (and I am sure everyone else in here would too) be extremely mad if Deuce were to leave because of all our coaching/management problems....which is what it comes down to really, not the players we have or dont have but what our coaches do or dont do with them.

I\'ll stop there before I say something that gets me attacked...seems I\'ve been pushing buttons lately.

Leadership question answered
 

Yes, that\'s exactly what he means.

\"He was a leader. Leaders are born, man.\"

\"He\'s right. You can learn Spanish. You can learn how to cook. You can learn good table manners. But you can\'t learn leadership. \"

That to me says you can\'t learn leadership - verbatim. I\'m not sure how else that can be interpretted other than, you can\'t learn leadership. Is someone else joining the INFERENCE squad? Leaders are born - Joe is right. You\'ve got it or you don\'t. That\'s always been my experience. But if you argue that, show me an example of a time when a guy was considered not to have what it takes to LEAD and then proved later that he LEARNED what it takes.

Leadership question answered
 

WhoDat,

1. The burden of proof is not on me here. If you want to claim leaders are born that way, you need to show me how genetics alone plays a role in being a leader. I do not have to show that environment plays a role in teaching someone to be a leader - my position is much more reasonable and widely accepted.

2. Teaching doesn\'t merely mean being sitting someone down and telling them stuff. The world teaches us all the time. We LEARN not to stick our hand in the fire, we LEARN to communicate with each other (which is surely required to be a leader), and we LEARN how to use our physical skills on the field, and the list goes on.

3. EVERY leader is an example of someone who has learned to be a leader when he was not before. No one at the age of 4 months is a leader (just to be as antagonistic as possible)! However, as I noted in an earlier thread, people learn to be leaders from role models (though, I concede that some of what makes a person a leader is genetic - such as intelligence). People like parents, coaches, heroes and so on all give us clues to what it takes to be a leader. In emulating them, we LEARN (and are taught by them) to be leaders.

Maybe we are just disagreeing about what it means to learn to be a leader, but the above is what I meant. I\'m sorry if I wasn\'t clear. However, I certainly don\'t think that because someone who currently participates in the NFL said something (whether it is Horn or Parcells or whoever), it must be true. I\'m certain you don\'t think that either. If I have to make an infrence, I\'m not sure why that is bad - I was merely trying to see if what Joe said has ANY merit at all. Sometimes, to be nice, it is better to be charitable to the speaker - i.e. infer that they meant something much smarter than what they said.

Whew. Sorry. I got a bit carried away there, but now that I\'ve written it, I\'m just going to post it. Feel free to respond or not.