Zimmers cap bittersweet season

[oldschooler]

[b][size="5"][/size][/b]
[b][size="5"]Dad helps Saints assistant Adam Zimmer with coaching and loss[/size][/b]


[size="-1"][b]
[b]01:05 AM CST on Wednesday, February 3, 2010[/b]
[/b][/size]
[b]Column by JEAN-JACQUES TAYLOR / The Dallas Morning News | jjtaylor@dallasnews.com[/b]

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – In the house where Adam Zimmer grew up, a framed photograph of him wearing a Weber State uniform, complete with shoulder pads and helmet, sits on a bookcase in the den.

He was 3 years old.

See, Adam, the Saints' 25-year-old assistant linebackers coach, has loved football for as long as he can remember, which comes as no surprise since he's the son of a coach, who's the son of a coach.

His father, [url="http://topics.dallasnews.com/topic/Mike_Zimmer"]Mike[/url], is one of the NFL's best defensive coordinators, who spent 13 seasons with the Cowboys. His grandfather, Bill, coached Lockport (Ill.) High for 34 seasons.

Mike Zimmer is intense, a perfectionist obsessed with details such as whether a defensive player's toe is pointed the right way when he starts pursuing a play.

Little Zim, as he was known around Valley Ranch, is the same type of coach.

Adam and his father share the same gait. And demeanor. And work ethic. We're talking about two guys who each brought DVDs of their defenses on a duck hunting trip in Argentina so they could compare notes.

The father earned a [url="http://topics.dallasnews.com/topic/Super_Bowl"]Super Bowl[/url] ring in 1995, celebrating with Adam on the sideline.

"When we knew the game was over, he picked me up in the air," Adam said Tuesday afternoon. "He kept saying, 'We did it. We won the big one.' "

Now, Adam is trying to earn his own championship ring. His dad has given him just one piece of advice this week.

"I told him to enjoy the week. After we won the game it was good, but I didn't enjoy the week," Zimmer said. "I told him to have some fun and create some memories and spend time with the family. If I ever go back, that's what I'm going to do."

Zimmer arrives Friday. So do his daughters, Corri and Marki.

Only Zimmer's wife, Vikki, the family matriarch is missing, though her spirit remains present in each of their lives. She died suddenly on Oct. 8 of natural causes.

Since then, grief has nudged father and son even closer, though each man is intensely private. Each keeps his feelings locked up, so he can be strong for the others.

Talking football is easy; discussing emotions is not.

At times, the unanswered questions – starting with why? – can be overwhelming. For now, both Zimmers can still immerse themselves in the season.

The Saints are still playing, and the Bengals made the playoffs, so Zimmer has been studying ways to improve Cincinnati's fourth-ranked defense.

The bad days come without warning, but the Zimmers persevere. They must.

The pain that accompanies the death of a loved one ebbs with time, but it never really fades. That's OK, because it reminds us how blessed we were to have that person in our life.

Vikki usually called her son every evening to chat about life. These days, Mike calls frequently.

"He'll ask me about the dogs," said Adam, referring to the two chocolate labs his mom gave him. "For Christmas, he paid to have my house cleaned for a year because he was worried about my place getting dirty."

"We're the same," Zimmer said. "I'll ask him, 'How are you doing?' He'll say, 'I'm doing good.' "

"We're both always doing good."

Then the talk usually turns to football.

Adam was always interested in being a coach, and after he ran a 4.8 40-yard dash as a junior at Colleyville Heritage, he knew it was the only way to stay close to the game.

Adam's college graduation from Trinity University in San Antonio coincided with [url="http://topics.dallasnews.com/topic/Sean_Payton"]Sean Payton[/url] getting hired by New Orleans. The Paytons and Zimmers formed a family bond after Sean joined the Cowboys' staff in 2003.

Payton liked Adam and his work ethic, so he hired him.

For a couple of years, Adam broke down film, charted formations and spoke when spoken to. Each year, he's earned more responsibility.

"When I went to see him during the bye week, I watched practice," said Zimmer, "and I had a couple of players, Scott Shanle and Scott Fujita, that I had in Dallas tell me what a good job he was doing.

"I've had coaches tell me that, but you never know if it's dad talk. Players have no motives to tell me that."

You can hear the pride in Zimmer's voice when he's talking about his son because he's a good coach and a good man.

"He's dependable. He's smart. He's tough. He'll do whatever I ask him to do, even if he doesn't want to," Zimmer said. "He's a gentleman. He's a great kid."

One day, Adam wants to work on his father's staff. Not yet. He's not ready, and he knows it. But he's getting close.

"I don't want people to think I got the job just because I'm his son," Adam said. "I want them to know I'm a good coach."

Just like his dad and his grandfather.





[url="http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/020310dnspotaylor.3f2210d.html"]http://www.dallasnew...or.3f2210d.html[/url]

[JC]

If Marvin does end up leaving after next year like rumored, I would imagine Adam would find himself as the linebackers coach with Fitz moving to D-coordinator. Just a guess.

[oldschooler]

[size="5"][b]Zimmers cap bittersweet season[/b]
[/size]GEOFF HOBSON

Posted 1 hour ago


Posted: 8:35 a.m.


MIAMI - A month before she died so suddenly in the middle of the day in the middle of her life, Vikki Zimmer was out to dinner with her husband when they began talking about their oldest child Adam.

"How honored do you feel that your son wants to be just like you, idolizes you and even has your mannerisms?" she asked Mike Zimmer.

But this week Mike Zimmer is hoping his son is nothing like him when he meets up with him here Friday at the Super Bowl. That's when Zimmer, the Bengals defensive coordinator, flies in from Cincinnati and plans to rescue his son from the final grinding hours of preparation and take him to dinner.

Since Adam is the Saints assistant linebackers coach in charge of the care and feeding of the New Orleans defense for everything from overseeing the playbooks to signaling in plays on game day, his father knows how much he'll need it.

"I always said if I ever go back, I'm going to enjoy at least some of it," Zimmer recalled Wednesday of his lone Super Bowl appearance with the Cowboys 15 years ago. "I didn't spend any time with my family. I didn't go out to dinner or anything like that. I was grinding. I was just so intent on trying to win. I told him the other day that hopefully he'll get a chance to enjoy some of it and we'll do it when we get together Friday."

When Zimmer coached the Cowboys secondary in that win over the Steelers in Arizona, 11-year-old Adam Zimmer carried the cord for his father's headsets on the sidelines. There will be no such storybook, full-circle scenes Sunday.


"He needs to make sure my sisters are OK up in the stands," Adam Zimmer said with a grin after wolfing down a quick lunch on a hectic Wednesday he attended the Saints media session before going to the first practice of the week. "I think the league would probably frown on it."


Saints head coach Sean Payton made a standing offer this week to Mike Zimmer and told him he could sit in on meetings, attend practices, whatever he wanted.


"But I don't want to get in the way," Zimmer said.


Just imagine the emotions for them. It is all so bittersweet, of course. Ever since Mike Zimmer came home from work for dinner on a Thursday - Oct. 8 - and found his wife of 27 years gone because of natural causes.

"I can't imagine it. I can't relate to that. To lose your mother when you're only 25 and Adam was so close to his mom," said Saints linebacker Scott Fujita. "That's the one thing about football. Your family is scattered. His dad was in Cincinnati. His sisters were in Texas. When he got back to New Orleans, it was in the middle of everything and I don't know if he had the proper time to grieve. But we knew we wanted to be there for him. He's like my little brother. We've got one of the closest rooms on the team."

If Mike Zimmer could lean for support on his "Little Sisters of the Poor," his fond nickname for his recycled defense, then Adam Zimmer says he has a bunch of big brothers in New Orleans. Shanle, another linebacker, calls him "the spirit of the game."

Along with Fujita, Shanle, and fellow linebacker Mark Simoneau, Zimmer arrived to work under Payton in 2006. Fujita and Shanle had been discarded by the Cowboys, Simoneau by the Eagles.

"The four of us really get along," Fujita said. "We came from other teams and Adam was this kid right out of Trinity University who looked like he was 12. Now he looks like he's 15. I don't know if you've noticed it or not, but now he's got a stubble."

Adam Zimmer needed them back in October and they came through. It was the Saints bye week but all the linebackers, position coach Joe Vitt, and Payton attended Vikki Zimmer's funeral mass at Holy Cross Immaculata Church high on Cincinnati's Mount Adams.


"When I saw all 10 of them come walking down the aisle," Adam Zimmer said, "yeah, it was a big lift. It really helped me get through it."

Just like his dad's guys do in Cincinnati, Adam says they check in on him. They text. Shanle says they've made sure he gets over to their houses to watch some Monday Night Football. Simoneau had Adam over to his house for Christmas. The Vitts had him for Thanksgiving.

When the Saints had a bye week last month to prepare for their first playoff game, Mike Zimmer called Payton to remind him that week was Adam's 26th birthday. When he got to his desk the morning of Jan. 13, Adam found cupcakes from Beth Payton, Sean's wife.


"They're taking good care of me," Adam Zimmer said.

But they will tell you he's also taking care of them.

Fujita and Shanle both played for Adam's father in Dallas and they back up what Vikki Zimmer said. Same mannerisms. Same intensity. Same brains. It is why the thirtysomething backers (Fujita and Shanle are 30, Simoneau is 33) don't throw the kid out of the room.

"What we respect about him is his knowledge of the game. It's unbelievable for a guy his age," Shanle said. "You've got to have a lot of respect for anybody that puts that much time into it."


Fujita says not only are Adam's mannerisms "uncanny" to Mike's, but they also have the same strengths. He always found it extremely valuable when Mike Zimmer would talk through his thoughts in putting together the game plan instead of just handing it to them.

"He's got a huge career in front of him. He can do whatever he wants to do," Fujita said. "Position coach, coordinator, even head coach. He's got the ability to do what his dad does. Identifying what opposing defenses are trying to do to attack you. (Mike did) the best job of thinking out loud so we could see what was in his mind when he was putting in the game plan. Adam does a really good job of stuff like that."

Adam Zimmer doesn't do the game plan, of course, but he is coordinator Gregg Williams' eyes and ears as the quality control guy breaking down film. But his role has expanded during his four seasons with the Saints and Vitt says he works on the field at every linebacker spot.


"He does more than copying," Fujita said and Shanle says his tip sheets that he hands out two days before the game are invaluable.


"Whatever day we come in, we know he was watching film the night before," Shanle said. "He gives us tips from what he sees from certain players in their stance. Down and distance ... he knows things tendency wise ... he does a good job breaking us down."


Adam Zimmer remembered at that first Super Bowl all he pretty much did was watch video games and he's got to be feeling a little bit of déjà vu trying to break down Colts quarterback Peyton Manning. Shanle said he has yet to see the Manning tip sheet, but Zimmer has already provided some on the Indy running backs' stances and alignments.

Neither Zimmer pulls any punches about wanting to work together one day and Fujita asks, "That's going to happen. How could it not?"


Could if not happen in Cincinnati? Mike Zimmer just re-upped for three more years in a deal that is believed to make him the Bengals' first $1 million coordinator. Adam Zimmer is in the final year of his deal in New Orleans and gets the vibe the Saints like what he's doing. Mike Zimmer said he broached the subject with head coach Marvin Lewis awhile ago but not lately.


"I don't want to look like I'm just following my dad around," Adam said. "I don't want to get a job just because he's the coordinator. I want the job because I'm a good coach, not because he's a good coach. I want to earn my stripes.

"You never know. It's something you don't talk about until after the season."

Mike Zimmer is worried about what is going to happen to Adam after the season when all the work is done. Mike admits he has hit the wall as he adjusts to life without Vikki.


"I've been doing it now for a couple of weeks," he said. "Last weekend I didn't do anything. There was nothing to do. I just watched TV. I'm coming home from work yesterday and I'm wondering what I'm going to cook for dinner. I think it's a little easier for Adam because he's living by himself but I know it's been hard on him."

In fact, Mike thinks he miscalculated how much Vikki's death has affected Adam. He instinctively showered attention on his 23- and 19-year-old daughters assuming Adam would be OK as the boy.


But Adam called his mother every night he left work and he still has her number in his phone and will look at it from time to time.


"I couldn't have got here without her," he said.

When Mike Zimmer decided to coach in Baltimore three days after Vikki's death, the Bengals invited him to bring family members on the charter and Adam, his sister and grandfather made the trip to see the Bengals win on [url="http://www.bengals.com/team/roster/carson-palmer/b2e2fb04-af84-4af9-9491-5c1dd3354623/"]Carson Palmer[img]http://www.bengals.com/assets/nflimg/icon-article-link.gif[/img][/url]'s 20-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver [url="http://www.bengals.com/team/roster/andre-caldwell/60736524-1999-49db-b9d2-bb925291219b/"]Andre Caldwell[img]http://www.bengals.com/assets/nflimg/icon-article-link.gif[/img][/url] with 22 seconds left cap a penalty-filled drive.

"My sister and I kind of let it go when that happened," Adam Zimmer said. "Then I knew she was OK. On that last drive, I just had a feeling they were going to score. I think she had something to do with the refs throwing all those flags around."


Adam watched Lewis give Mike the game ball a few minutes later, and Payton did the same thing the next week when the Saints beat the Giants at home.

"There was no question that was the thing to do. I don't even know if we talked about it," Fujita said.


Mike Zimmer is hoping for another celebration Sunday. He went to the NFC title game with the girls and they had trouble getting back to the car amid all the mayhem. This one might be a little more laid back because there is going to be a concert.

"I hope I celebrate with a beer with Adam listening to Kenny Chesney," Mike Zimmer said.

And if they lose?

Mike Zimmer thought about that for a minute.


"Same thing, I guess," he said.


And that won't be bad, either, on a day Mike Zimmer will finally stop and smell the roses of a Super Bowl.

But they are a bouquet of bittersweet.





[url="http://www.bengals.com/news/article-1/Zimmers-cap-bittersweet-season/26af6e57-62c3-47e4-96df-0a304385df4d"]http://www.bengals.com/news/article-1/Zimmers-cap-bittersweet-season/26af6e57-62c3-47e4-96df-0a304385df4d[/url]

[Cricket]

[quote name='oldschooler' date='04 February 2010 - 09:23 AM' timestamp='1265293408' post='861520']
[size="5"][b]Zimmers cap bittersweet season[/b]
[/size]GEOFF HOBSON

MIAMI -
...
Fujita says not only are Adam's mannerisms "uncanny" to Mike's, but they also have the same strengths. He always found it extremely valuable when [b]Mike Zimmer would talk through his thoughts in putting together the game plan instead of just handing it to them.[/b]

"He's got a huge career in front of him. He can do whatever he wants to do," Fujita said. "Position coach, coordinator, even head coach. He's got the ability to do what his dad does. [b]Identifying what opposing defenses are trying to do to attack you. (Mike did) the best job of thinking out loud so we could see what was in his mind when he was putting in the game plan.[/b] Adam does a really good job of stuff like that."
...
[/quote]

IMO, this is why the players love playing for Zim.

[oldschooler]

[size="5"][b]Super Bowl reunites Zimmer family for first time since Vikki's funeral[/b][/size]
By Joe Reedy • jreedy@enquirer.com • February 6, 2010

The Zimmer family has gathered to watch one of their own coach in the NFL's biggest game of the year. But one person is missing.

When New Orleans faces Indianapolis today in Super Bowl XLIV at Miami, it will mark the first time the Zimmers have been together since the funeral for Vikki Zimmer in Cincinnati Oct. 13.

Adam Zimmer is in his fourth season as a linebackers assistant with the Saints. He's the son of Vikki and Mike Zimmer, the Bengals' defensive coordinator.

"He doesn't seem nervous," Mike Zimmer said of how his son was handling the week of buildup to today's game. "I'm sure he will start to get nervous on Sunday when the jets fly over the stadium."


Vikki's death affected not only the Bengals, but also the Saints. The families of Mike Zimmer and Saints coach Sean Payton have been close since the two worked together as coordinators under Bill Parcells with the Dallas Cowboys from 2003-05. Adam's sisters, Corri and Marki, often were babysitters for Payton's children in Dallas.

As Adam Zimmer aptly put it on Thursday, it's been a season of great highs and the lows for his family.

Both the Bengals and the Saints won their respective division titles after meeting each other in their preseason openers.

The Saints were on their bye week when Vikki Zimmer died on Oct. 8 of natural causes. Adam made the trip to Cincinnati to be with his father and also was with Mike in Baltimore on Oct. 11 when the Bengals earned an emotional 17-14 victory over the Ravens and awarded a game ball to their defensive coordinator.


Two days after that game, Payton, Saints linebackers coach Joe Vitt and New Orleans' linebackers made the trip to Cincinnati for Vikki's funeral.

"Sean has kind of been an uncle to him, and Joe has really taken him under his wing," Mike Zimmer said.

Signs of Vikki Zimmer's influence remain with Adam in New Orleans, such as the ways she decorated his apartment. He used to call her each evening on his way home.

During the Bengals bye week after their Oct. 25 win over Chicago, Mike Zimmer visited Adam in New Orleans and watched a couple of the Saints' practices and their win over Atlanta on Nov. 2. The trip was the first time Mike had seen his son coach, and it also showed him all three of his children were holding up well.

"I think he was so worried about how my sisters and I were doing," Adam said. "Going down (to Dallas) and seeing them and then seeing me, it helped him realize we were doing OK and not to worry about us as much. ... He did a real good job of that as the season progressed."

Adam Zimmer was not surprised that his dad agreed to a three-year contract extension to remain as the Bengals' defensive coordinator. After spending a couple weeks with his daughters in Dallas at the end of the season, Mike has been at work in Cincinnati, going through evaluations for last season and also beginning preparations for the NFL Scouting Combine later this month.

"He really likes it there," Adam Zimmer said. "He's got players who play for him now and do the things he wants. It's hard to get that in the NFL. He's got the type of guys he really wants to work with, and that's why he ultimately stayed."

Adam said the support Mike has received from Bengals fans also was a factor in his decision.

"The fans are great there," Adam said. "Every time I go up there, they say how much they love him. He didn't get recognized before, but everywhere we go now he's recognized. It's been a real good experience."




(Click the link below for the entire aritcle)



http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100206/SPT02/2070358/1066/Happier+day+for+Zimmers

[oldschooler]

[url="http://twitter.com/Adam_Schefter"][b][color="#0a0501"]Adam_Schefter[/color][/b][/url] [url=""] [/url] 2/2: And Saints LB coach Adam Zimmer, getting emotional about how he felt his mom's presence during SB XLIV and post-game celebration.
[url="http://twitter.com/Adam_Schefter/status/8803209252"]about 3 hours ago [/url]from [url="http://ubertwitter.com/"]UberTwitter[/url]

[JC]

The Saints backers' last night were awesome. Will be interesting to see what Adam does.

[oldschooler]

[b][size="5"]A trophy for the heart[/size][/b]
GEOFF HOBSON

Posted: 7:05 a.m.

MIAMI - The last time Adam Zimmer stood on a Super Bowl sideline, he held the cord for his father's headsets when his Cowboys beat the Steelers.

On Sunday night while he assisted the resourceful Saints defense, he held his dad's heart while Mike Zimmer sat in the stands with his two daughters to end this remarkable season of win and loss.

And don't let them kid you.


Defense still wins championships. Even when there are $100 million quarterbacks and video game rules. The [url="http://www.neworleanssaints.com/"][color="#f04e23"]New Orleans Saints[/color][/url] offense came into the Super Bowl leading the league in scoring and innovation, but needed an onside kick and an interception return for a touchdown to claim their first NFL title with a what-the-heck-is-dat 31-17 win over the favored Colts at breezy Sun Life Stadium.

Bengals fans know that now firsthand after a season their fourth-ranked defense made possible a run into these playoffs despite an offense ranked 24th. And after all that he had accomplished despite all the heartache his family has been through this season, it was somehow fitting that Zimmer's dad, Bengals defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer was on the field in the swirl of confetti to share in at least a slice of the 2009 NFL championship.

"Corri said there were angels in the end zone. My mom was helping us out all year," said Adam Zimmer, the Saints assistant linebackers coach, with a sad smile when he was reminded that Vikki Zimmer seemed to also make a late appearance in some Bengals games.


"Yeah, they had a heck of year, too."

But the Bengals didn't win a Super Bowl like Adam Zimmer did a mere 25 days after he turned 26 and 14 years after Cowboys secondary coach Mike Zimmer lifted him in his arms and told him, "We won the big one."

Adam Zimmer's Saints won the big one because of the relentless microchip precision passing of Drew Brees, the bottomless supply of personnel groups defensive coordinator Gregg Williams showed the other MVP quarterback, and the endless chutzpah supplied by Saints head coach Sean Payton.


But his linebackers were also giving Adam Zimmer some big-time credit. Scott Fujita swore that Zimmer had picked up enough of quarterback Peyton Manning's words off TV scouting that it helped them break one of the more ancient and mystifying codes for NFL defenses.


"A lot of it was spot on," Fujita said. "You wonder during the week that you got these code words you hear about other teams from scouting and watching TV copies. But a lot of them were pretty accurate. We came out and we were calling out some of the plays on the field."


The Saints also won because of a tight bond they've clung to since Peyton arrived at about the time New Orleans started digging out of the hole Hurricane Katrina had left. On Saturday linebackers coach Joe Vitt thought that his players should watch the 12-minute piece NFL Films did on the Zimmers that aired on the NFL Network and ESPN last month. Some of the backers hadn't seen the video that chronicled the Zimmers' life since their wife and mother died suddenly in October and how Mike and Adam Zimmer kept coaching while Corri and Marki kept trying to keep it together and how the Saints had helped.

"Just to remind us what we went through this year, how we close we are and the love we have for one another," said linebacker Scott Shanle. "It was emotional to watch it as a linebacker group in our meeting. Before the biggest game of the year it was a reminder how close we are and the support we gave."


It was Vitt and Payton and all the linebackers that had made the trip to Cincinnati for the Oct. 13 funeral even though it was the Tuesday of the bye week. Rookie linebacker Jonathan Casillas, who came up with the ball on the biggest onside kick in Super Bowl history, remembers junking all his plans that day.

"That's more important. He's family. He needs to be around his family. And we're his family locally," Casillas said. "When we got (to Cincinnati), his dad was there and his sisters were there and the Bengals came out. I'm not a big funeral guy, but I thought it was very important for us to be there. I think it meant a lot to him and the family."

During the past week, Adam Zimmer talked about how when the Saints came marching into that church on Mount Adams it gave him a big lift on the toughest day of his life. With the Lombardi Trophy in his grasp because he snatched the ball from the Colts, Casillas and Zimmer were sharing the biggest moment of their young lives.


"It was powerful," Casillas said of the video. "He means a lot to us and this organization. It's part of the whole movement we've got going on."


The Bengals and Saints shared a year of tragedy. Payton recalled the death of the mother of Drew Brees as well as the death of Vikki Zimmer, a woman Payton knew from his days with Mike Zimmer in Dallas and who would help Corri and Marki babysit his two children.


"You have to feel good for that family tonight," Payton said, finally able to reflect just a bit as he walked to the bus nearly two hours after it was all over. "You know Vikki is up there watching somewhere."


For the first time since the funeral the Zimmers were all together for a Friday night dinner and Sunday night's postgame whirl. They were on the field during the trophy presentation and had their cameras snapping away. "Victory pictures," Adam called them. And then Mike and the girls left for the postgame party, a concert by Payton's good friend, country star Kenny Chesney.

"I told my dad we've had a rough stretch," he said, "but here we are."


Adam felt good all week. He told his father the Saints were focused and crisp and thought they would "win by as couple of scores." He just didn't think they would fall behind by a couple of scores. Mike didn't think Adam sounded nervous at all.

A big difference than when he was 12. There was no confetti or red carpet or touching the Lombardi Trophy like there was Sunday night.

He wants something else to be different, too.


His ring.


"I told him as long as mine is bigger than his," Adam Zimmer said.


It was clearly his son's moment. Mike Zimmer made sure he was with his girls and not in the postgame locker room.

But seeing Mike Zimmer on the field was also emotional for Shanle, a guy that played for him in Dallas before he got traded to the Saints. Fujita had also played for Zimmer as a Cowboy and it figures that they are the two closest to the Zimmers.


"It was great seeing Mike. I was a young guy in Dallas. I didn't know much about much," Shanle said. "I really credit him for teaching me how to play the game of football in the NFL. Without him showing me how to play the game and producing in Dallas I never would have got traded here and become a starter. I give a lot of credit to him ... I don't think I'd be here now without him."

Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams had made the biggest news of the week by brazenly talking about his plan to hit Manning. Payton had jokingly sent him a jar of peanut butter and crackers with which to seal his mouth, but as he did all night, Williams had the last word. On his way to the bus he stuck a jar of Jif in the crook of Payton's arm.


Earlier in the postgame jubilation, Williams came across nothing like a loud-mouth lout. He said he told Adam Zimmer that his "mom was looking down on us tonight." Then he took out of his pocket a Sean Taylor coin honoring the late Redskins safety.

"One of the things I told him is that one of my favorite players of all-time is right here and Sean Taylor passed away on my watch," Williams said. "I made these coins for the team and every single day he's in my pocket and I know (Zimmer's) mother was looking down, too. Our players have rallied around him through a tough time. He's a bright young coach. I wish his mother could be with him, but I'm sure they'll be rejoicing about that tonight."


Getting lost in the emotion was that Adam Zimmer, also the defense's quality control coach, had a big hand in Williams being able to execute his brilliant game plan. As Williams explained it, the idea was to give Manning a boat load of different personnel groupings. In the first quarter, it was a 3-4 style. In the second quarter it was a 4-3 style. In the second half it was a mixture. He thinks enough of Zimmer that he's got him standing next to him in case the head set breaks down and Zimmer would have to hand signal in the play.


(Zimmer thought for sure that would happen with all of Sunday's cell phone activity, but he said everything stayed clear.)

"Because they were going with three receivers so much in the fourth quarter, we leaned on the 3-4 concept," said Williams of three linemen, three backers and five DBs. "We've got 27 (packages) to add up to 11. Tonight we used an awful lot of them. We have all these kinds of names on different guys who go out to play certain positions. It does cause (Manning) to think longer and not be quite as decisive."

Shanle gave credit to Zimmer's tips and alerts sheets that he puts together for Williams about two days before the game.


"I got a lot of tips with Peyton Manning's signals," Shanle said. "He talked to some people about the signals. It helped. They started changing them up during the game. The thing Adam did, he breaks it down a lot by sets. Run. Pass. We aligned in a lot of the defenses because of the breakdowns they did."

The winning play came off a blitz with 3:24 left in the game and Manning looking at a third-and-five from the Saints 31 and trailing, 24-17. Shanle and Fujita weren't even sure of the name of the blitz ("Ram, wasn't it?" Shanle asked Fujita), but they also could have been playing with the media.


Shanle did confirm it was an overloaded blitz off Manning's strong side and when he tried to go back to the other side cornerback Tracy Porter jumped the route and returned it 74 yards for a touchdown that made you wish you were on Bourbon Street instead of the beach.

"I know there are a lot of shirts coming off, for sure," Fujita said.


About five plays before, the Colts had run the same play that Williams called a "trick blitz." He said the Saints had to be careful with what they ran early because they knew if they showed Manning it all he would have enough time to figure it out. After running it the first time, Shanle, Fujita and middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma had gone to Williams and urged him to run it again and "Tracy believed in the blitz and read it."

An hour after it was over, Zimmer was still wearing what looked to soon be a souvenir: The wristband of the calls.

"This was just for the second half," he said. "We were worried about them stealing our signals, so we wore a different one in the first half and changed them at halftime.


"We knew we didn't want to give up the big play. We wanted to make them drive down the field and play well in the red zone and for the most part we did that. We blitzed a little more on third down and played more coverage on first and second down. Then as the game went on, we were putting on more pressure on first and second down. ... We did a better job of disguising and throwing them off later in the game."

Zimmer talks to Williams between each series so he can give him feedback and help him reset with "Do you like this call, do you like that call?" Zimmer's view of the pick was that "We were playing man pressure and we had 44 (tight end Dallas Clark) doubled and he had to get rid of it."

Zimmer went nuts running down the sidelines and knocked down the Saints DB coach. About an hour later, they knocked out some tradition when Zimmer helped gather the backers to pull them out of the locker room and take them out to the field for one last victory shot.

"We've done it after every game in the playoffs," said Adam Zimmer, who even at just 26 knows something about tradition.

He is 1-0 now holding his dad's heart in Super Bowls, 1-0 holding the cord.






[url="http://www.bengals.com/news/article-1/A-trophy-for-the-heart/3870f781-7842-415b-b4cf-d92f4235e5a8"]http://www.bengals.com/news/article-1/A-trophy-for-the-heart/3870f781-7842-415b-b4cf-d92f4235e5a8[/url]

[JC]

Does anyone know where I can find the documentary on the Zimmers? I checked youtube but didn't come up with anything. I have no idea if it surfaced here or not.