Darren Rizzi made his debut on Sunday as interim coach of the Saints. During a hectic week of preparing for the assignment, he got advice from several different coaches.
Their message was consistent.
“I got the same advice from Dan Campbell and Todd Bowles and Bill Parcells and even Chris Tabor, because I thought Chris Tabor was a good resource because he was the . . . interim [head coach] with the Panthers last year as a special teams guy, and all four guys separately said, ‘Number one, be yourself; number one, be yourself,’ like don’t try to be somebody else,” Rizzi told PFT by phone after the 20-17 win over the Falcons.
Coach Parcells, that was his number one thing he said to me, and then Dan Campbell and I kind of did the interim deal back in Miami and Todd Bowles, same thing. Dan brought up a lot of stuff that him and I did together way back when. . . . Just to be yourself and be authentic that was really it but, you know, an Italian from North Jersey is going to be that way anyways.
Rizzi was being his authentic self when he told reporters that he started the day by clogging the toilet in the head coach’s office. And he was being himself when he told me that, given the superstitions inherent to the Italian people, he’ll now take an extra roll of toilet paper with him so that he can keep clogging the toilet before each game.
