The Facts: Following up on a previous item. ... Monday’s revelation that Saints HC Sean Payton has asked one of his mentors, Bill Parcells, to take the wheel for roughly 10 months (or maybe only nine months), seemed surprising at first. On further review, it makes plenty of sense. Payton’s smart enough to know that, if an in-house assistant coach thrives as the interim head coach, owner Tom Benson could decide at the end of the 2012 season to give the whistle permanently to whoever leads the team through the coming minefield.
Diehards Line:So, as PFT's Mike Florio suggests, what better way to keep Benson from deciding to promote Pete Carmichael Jr., Steve Spagnuolo, or Aaron Kromer (and in turn to let Payton go) than to have the job go to a guy who’d want it for only one year? Indeed, that was the first thing that came up during discussions of this story at FootballDiehards.com headquarters. It's certainly an interesting angle in this ongoing story. ... Stay tuned. More undoubtedly to come.