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Bill Parcells paused, searching for the perfect word, as he was trying to describe the difference between former assistants Sean Payton and Mike Zimmer.

"I really think they’re the same guy in a lot of ways," Parcells said of their drive, intensity and mastery of the offensive and defensive games, respectively.

"Now, Mike is a little more ... uhhh ... let’s say ‘verbal,’" Parcells said of the fourth-year Minnesota Vikings coach, who is known for his direct, blunt personality, compared to the more gregarious one Payton has displayed in his 12 years as coach of the New Orleans Saints.

Zimmer’s description was even better. Perfect, really.

"We’re pretty opposite, I think. I mean, Sean’s a great guy and a heck of a coach. You’d have to ask him how I am. I don’t know," Zimmer said in his typical curt fashion.

Then when asked to expand on what he meant by "opposite," Zimmer simply replied, "He’s a lot more outgoing than I am," followed by an awkward silence.

That got a big laugh out of Payton when he heard what Zimmer said. He knows Zimmer well after the three years they spent together on Parcells’ staff with the Dallas Cowboys from 2003 to 2005, when they lived about a mile away from each other, talked a lot of football and played a lot of golf together.

Well, spent a lot of time on golf courses, anyway.

"We were professional driving range partners. ... And we were frustrated golfers, I would say," Payton cracked. "But we enjoyed the same things. We enjoyed football, our families and golf. And holy cow, we did a lot of things together. And his daughters were great [when they baby-sat Payton’s children]. And when [Zimmer’s son and current Vikings linebackers coach] Adam finished college, I hired him here and his career got started. ... We’re both from Illinois, and his father was a legendary high school coach there.

"We’re close friends."



When Payton got his job with the Saints in 2006, Zimmer’s wife, Vikki, threw the Paytons a going-away party that Adam said he came back from college to attend. When Vikki died unexpectedly in 2009 when Zimmer was coaching with the Cincinnati Bengals, Payton went to the funeral.

With that close friendship has come a tremendous mutual respect. There aren’t many coaches doing their jobs at a higher level anywhere in the NFL, especially considering they both call their own plays. Payton leads the NFL's No. 2-ranked offense and Zimmer the No. 1-ranked defense as they head toward a collision in Sunday’s divisional-round game at Minnesota.

Former Saints and Cowboys linebacker Scott Fujita also got a big laugh out of Zimmer’s short-and-sweet personality breakdown.

"That’s just classic. That paints the most perfect picture," Fujita said. "Because in terms of kind of the ‘mad-scientist, knowing how to scheme an opponent,’ they’re so similar in that. But their way of dealing with people is completely different.

"With Zim, obviously as everyone sees in press conferences and everything else, that’s also how he is in meeting rooms, that’s how he is with his coaches. It’s just no B.S., he cuts to the chase, there’s no wasted words at all. And then with Sean, he’s just a gifted storyteller and motivator."

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