SmashMouth

Text messages at 4 a.m. are usually either really good or really bad news.

For New Orleans Saints rookie wide receiver Tommylee Lewis, those 4 a.m. alerts are tips from former NFL coach Bill Parcells.

Parcells saw Lewis play at William T. Dwyer High in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., and Lewis said he and the legendary coach have stayed in contact over the years.

"We text back and forth, here and there," Lewis said. "He likes to text early in the morning, like 4 in the morning."



Parcells, who is friends with Lewis' high school coach, also vouched for another Dwyer High player, Jacoby Brissett, the former North Carolina State quarterback selected by the New England Patriots in the third round this year.

And when Lewis was going through the draft process as an under-the-radar prospect from Northern Illinois, Parcells reached out to Sean Payton, his former pupil, to recommend the 5-foot-7 receiver to the Saints — albeit with a warning that Lewis wouldn't be tall.

"This was his guy," Payton said. "So, I don't know that we had great exposure with the tape, but we signed him right after the draft. And, shoot, I'm glad we did."

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