SmashMouth

The numbers are downright gaudy, even for the Big Easy.

Since 2006, the unique, dynamic relationship between Saints coach Sean Payton and his best bud Drew Brees has produced a league-best 36,940 passing yards, 270 touchdowns, 3,187 completions and an eye-popping 67.2 completion percentage, not to mention NFL records for passing yards in a season (5,476 in 2011), completion percentage for a season (71.2 percent in 2011) and consecutive games with a TD pass (57).

But as I researched the Payton-Brees duo for a story in the current QB Issue of the ESPN The Magazine -- a pairing for the ages Jon Gruden said belongs in the same lineage as Vince Lombardi and Bart Starr -- what I found was, despite all the wild numbers, all the shiny hardware and all the explosive plays you'll see jump off your screen Thursday night in Atlanta, if you drill down far enough, the real heart and soul behind this Payton-Brees partnership is actually a benevolent, thoughtful, silver-haired retired football coach by the name of J.R. Bishop.

Outside of his own parents, Payton says his relationship with Bishop was the most influential of his life. Watching the 2013 Saints, it's easy to see why. A former high school coach in Naperville, Ill., Bishop is the one who gave Payton, then an undersized QB himself, the blueprint that, 30 years later, he would turn into a record-breaking relationship with Brees. "To some degree I think Sean is like me as a coach ... and Brees does remind me of Sean a little bit on the field," says Bishop, 75, from his home in Illinois. "Sean was always a tremendous student of the game. He couldn't play good enough and the team couldn't play good enough to satisfy him, and nobody worked any harder than he did. Now if only he had worked as hard in my English class."

Most of us are already familiar with Brees' amazing backstory. Prep star in Austin, Texas. Ignored by the Longhorns, settles on Purdue. Proceeds to break all the Big Ten passing records. But at just under 6 feet falls to second round of the draft. In five years with the Chargers builds himself into a Pro Bowl passer. Then, in 2005, 40 minutes from free agency, he suffers a rare and grotesque complete tear of the labrum in his throwing shoulder. On the open market, only the sad-sack Saints make an offer.

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