This Saint’s in ‘Heaven’ : Overachieving Abramowicz Still Expects Success Against the Odds

Religion and sobriety have brought Danny Abramowicz happiness. They have done little to curb his intensity.

The slightly protruding eyes stare fiercely. Quick hand-chops accent his rapid speech. Even his close-cropped gray hair seems clinched.

If not for AA and religion, this longtime overachiever might have burned out years ago instead of preparing for a new job as offensive coordinator of the New Orleans Saints, the team he fought to be part of three decades back.

“This was obviously part of a grand design,” he said. “Otherwise, who would have ever thought I’d be here doing this?”

There are still plenty of people who question whether his hiring was one of Mike Ditka’s big mistakes since taking over as the Saints’ coach Jan. 28.

Abramowicz’s previous coaching experience includes a Catholic high school in New Orleans and special teams with the Chicago Bears. Limited, Ditka admits, but not worrisome.

“Once you get into coaching and you have certain abilities, you can do many things,” Ditka said. “Danny has those abilities. He’s a great teacher. He’s a great innovator, and he knows football thoroughly.”

The doubters don’t bother Ditka and they certainly don’t bother Abramowicz.

“People have always questioned whether I can do things,” Abramowicz said. “They didn’t think I could play football in high school. I was a 17th-round draft pick, no one thought I’d actually play in the NFL. Then no one thought I would go from being a high school coach to being an NFL coach. It doesn’t bother me. I’ll just have to show them again.”

Abramowicz was one of about 130 players at the Saints’ very first training camp back in 1967. When he was ordered to coach Tom Fears’ office and told to bring his playbook, the traditional prelude to being cut, Abramowicz wasn’t having any of it.

“I told Coach Fears, ‘This isn’t right. You didn’t give me a chance. I’m not leaving,”’ Abramowicz said.

It was special teams that kept him around after that, he said. That and sheer determination.

He wasn’t big, he wasn’t fast--he said they clocked him with an hourglass--he wasn’t well known, and he hadn’t played at a college powerhouse.

But he refused to give up. Any time a player was needed, Abramowicz was in there.

“It’s still the same today. You do whatever it takes,” said Abramowicz, who once had his front teeth knocked out on special teams but was back in for the next punt.

In his 8-year career, Abramowicz caught 309 passes for the Saints and 62 for the San Francisco 49ers. He caught at least one pass in 106 games.

Abramowicz spent five years as the Saints’ color analyst, while his drinking increased to the point he frequently worked broadcasts hung-over.

Like most recovered alcoholics, Abramowicz remembers exactly when he took his last drink--Dec. 15, 1981. He credits Alcoholics Anonymous for helping him kick booze, his religion for keeping him sober.

“You can be sober but not serene,” Abramowicz, who was raised a Catholic, said. “I’m both.”

While bouncing back from alcoholism, he also had to bounce back from a couple of bad investments made in New Orleans as people tried to cash in on the 1984 world’s fair. He sank money into an aerial gondola ride over the Mississippi River and a hotel. They cost him his house, his savings and left him “over six figures” in debt.

Abramowicz went to work in the oil-field supply business and paid off every penny he owed. He was making big money and things looked great.

Great, but not right.

“I just felt there was something I was supposed to be doing,” Abramowicz said. “When the coaching job at Jesuit (High School) opened up, I jumped at it. I took a $60,000 pay cut to go there. My friends thought I was crazy, but it was the most fun I ever had.”

Three years later, Abramowicz went to conduct a chapel service for the Chicago Bears and met Ditka.

“He liked what I said and I liked him. We found out, we’re a lot a like. We like the same type of people, have the same values,” Abramowicz said. “I told him that if he ever had an opening I’d like it.”

Ditka hired Abramowicz as the Bears special-teams coach in 1992. A year later, Ditka was gone, but Abramowicz stayed.

Last January, he and the Bears parted company. Abramowicz called Ditka. Don’t worry, Ditka said, everything will work out.

Shortly after that, Abramowicz and his wife of 31 years, Claudia, were praying when she opened the Bible and read about Jonah and the whale.

“She got to the part where the whale spit Jonah out after three days, and I told her, something will happen in three days,”’ Abramowicz said.

Sure enough, Abramowicz became the Saints’ offensive coordinator.

“People who say I’m not equipped to do this job don’t understand. I have my doctorate in football,” Abramowicz said. “I didn’t have as much talent as most players, so I had to spend a lot of time studying the game. I know this game, inside and out. Knowing how football is played is my talent.”

Transforming the Saints’ offense that ranked 29th last year has begun. The Saints have not only acquired talented players, Abramowicz said, they have obtained the kind of guys he loves--hard-working players who hustle all the time.

And although Abramowicz will call plays, developing them will be done by the entire coaching staff, a highly seasoned group with 90 years of combined NFL experience.

“There’s a lot of gray hair on this staff,” Abramowicz said.

And when Abramowicz is calling those plays, Ditka said he expects the same kind of innovation and sometimes-chancy decisions Abramowicz displayed on special teams in Chicago.

“I think the one thing about Danny, he is not faint of heart,” Ditka said. “People had better watch out when he’s in charge.”

Abramowicz has only one prediction--the Saints will have a winning season this year.

“Life is an attitude. You get better or just get through. We’re not going to have anyone on this team that just gets through,” he said. “We’re only interested in being the best.”