Delhomme Is Taking Road From Nowhere

To suggest that Jake Delhomme has come from nowhere is to encourage Delhomme to begin a history lesson about nowhere.

He comes from Breaux Bridge, La., which is the crawfish capital of the world. How can that be nowhere?

“It’s a capital of the world,” Delhomme said. “C’mon.”

He played quarterback in college at Louisiana Lafayette when it was known as Southwestern Louisiana. The Ragin’ Cajuns won two Big West Conference titles under Delhomme and that’s something you can’t have happening nowhere.

Delhomme might not have been drafted to the NFL and that makes a man with pro football aspirations thinking he’s headed nowhere, and he might have signed with the New Orleans Saints, which many NFL players have found to be awfully close to nowhere.

The Saints sent Delhomme to NFL Europe to play for Amsterdam and Delhomme was the second-string quarterback.

Nowheresville cubed, right?

“Well, I was backup to Kurt Warner,” Delhomme said. “So it turns out it wasn’t so bad.”

He came back, was given the chance to compete with Danny Wuerffel for the starting job and lost out. To Wuerffel. Nowhere would be a step up.

But five years with the Saints, a year as a backup in Europe, all this was leading somewhere.

To Charlotte. To the Carolina Panthers.

To the opening day of the 2003 season when the Panthers were losing to Jacksonville, 17-0, and Delhomme was brought off the bench to replace Rodney Peete, a move made of desperation. Delhomme had been given every chance to beat out Peete in training camp and had not been able to and seemed permanently to have found a home nowhere.

And inevitably, Delhomme thinks anyway, he has found his way to the role of Warner, of Tom Brady, of those quarterbacks unheard of until they accomplished something special at playoff time.

Delhomme will lead the Panthers into the NFC championship game Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia against the Eagles.

A free agent last summer, Delhomme was evaluated by Dallas and Carolina. He knew he had to leave New Orleans even if he didn’t want to.

“It was my home state team, close to my family and my friends,” Delhomme said. “The fans are great but finally I began to understand the Saints had found their guy in Aaron Brooks, you know? I needed to move on.”

His hope?

“That I’d be starting by opening day,” Delhomme said. “It kind of happened.”

Peete, 38, had been considered a stopgap move for the Panthers even last season, but the USC alumnus had started all 14 games when he was uninjured. Peete’s smarts and 15 years of NFL experience trumped Delhomme’s big arm and enthusiasm. For a half.

Delhomme, 28, started the second half against Jacksonville.

“He came running into the huddle,” wide receiver Steve Smith said, “and acted like we had a chance to win.”

“I thought we did,” Delhomme said.

Eagle quarterback Donovan McNabb is on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week, partly because of the fourth-and-26 pass he completed last Sunday near the end of the game against Green Bay.

Delhomme had his own big fourth-down completion in that opener against the Jaguars. Late in the game, on fourth and 11, Delhomme calmly stood against a rush, found Ricky Proehl in the left corner of the end zone and threw to him. It was the touchdown that gave Carolina a 24-23 victory.

It gave the Panthers a belief in their quarterback.

“You could see Jake gain confidence in himself,” receiver Muhsin Muhammad said. “He got a chance and he really took advantage.”

As he walked into that huddle at the start of the half, Delhomme’s mind was racing.

“I was thinking,” Delhomme said, “that I couldn’t try to get the game back in one play. And that this was the chance I had been waiting for my whole life.”

Delhomme, 6 feet 2 and 205 pounds, is not highly ranked in any of the NFL quarterback categories. During the regular season, he ranked 14th in passer rating (80.6), 13th in yards passing (3,219) and 12th in touchdown passes (19, compared to leader Brett Favre’s 32).

Carolina Coach John Fox said, though, that the Panthers hadn’t signed Delhomme because he had the strongest arm or quickest feet.

“When we talked about Jake to other people, what we kept getting back was Jake’s intangibles,” Fox said.

“We kept hearing how well-liked he was and what a good leader he was. Those are not qualities to underestimate. And when he did get the opportunity in that Jacksonville game, he proved he had grasped the offense and that he could rally the guys. He’s gotten better every game since.”

Delhomme says he’s not nervous about Sunday.

“It’s no different than the first game of the season,” he said. “My goals are no different. I want to play my best and I want my team to win.”

Eight times, Delhomme has led the Panthers in game-winning drives either late in regulation or in overtime, most recently last weekend when he connected with Smith on a 69-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the second overtime to stun the Rams in St. Louis.

Center Jeff Mitchell says it is Delhomme’s enthusiasm that most fires up the team.

“He’s like a Little League kid,” Mitchell said. “He gets so fired up and you can’t ignore that. It’s a positive energy, it’s just unbridled. I think it comes because he has been working so long, so hard for this. He appreciates what he has and you want to win for the guy.”

Delhomme signed a two-year, $4-million contract last spring. He’s already a bargain, but the money isn’t the thing. He grew up on a horse farm in Breaux Bridge. His off-season home is in Breaux Bridge. His dad, Jerry, trains Jake’s horses and Jake will be home this winter to work the horses, Super Bowl or not.

“What I’ve got now is what I was convinced I could handle,” Delhomme said. “A job as a starting quarterback in the NFL.”

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AFC CHAMPIONSHIP

Indianapolis (14-4) at New England (15-2) Sunday, Noon, Ch. 2

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NFC CHAMPIONSHIP

Carolina (13-5) at Philadelphia (13-4) Sunday, 3:45 p.m., Ch. 11

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Delhomme’s Career

Carolina Panther quarterback Jake Delhomme’s pro football resume was not impressive before this season:

* 1997: Signed by New Orleans as an undrafted rookie free agent out of Louisiana Lafayette, where he was the all-time Louisiana college passing leader. Waived during the exhibition season and later signed to the practice squad.

* 1998: Allocated by New Orleans to the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe. Backed up current St. Louis quarterback Kurt Warner.... In NFL, served as New Orleans’ inactive third quarterback for first five games before being waived and signed to practice squad.

* 1999: Allocated to the Frankfurt Galaxy of NFL Europe by New Orleans. Led the Galaxy to World Bowl Championship and ranked second in the league with a 96.8 quarterback rating.... In NFL, waived before the start of the season and re-signed by New Orleans in November. Had two starts, was the third quarterback for two contests and was inactive for two games.

* 2000: Inactive third quarterback for New Orleans’ first 11 games. Dressed but did not play in the last five games or two playoff games.

* 2001: New Orleans’ inactive third quarterback for all 16 games.

* 2002: Played in four games and did not appear in 12 as the Saints’ reserve quarterback behind Aaron Brooks. Threw only 10 passes.

* 2003: Signed by Carolina as an unrestricted free agent from the Saints on March 7, 2003. Replaced an ineffective Rodney Peete in the season opener and started the rest of the season. Completed 59.2% of his passes. Had 19 touchdowns, 16 interceptions and a rating of 80.6.