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January 31, 2004

It's All Jake

Small town in Louisiana pays homage to favorite son, Panthers QB Delhomme

By Joe Menzer | JOURNAL REPORTER

BREAUX BRIDGE, La.

Win or lose, when Super Bowl XXXVIII is over on Sunday night, Jake Delhomme can rest assured that he will be able to return to his hometown and have just about anything he wants.

After all, this is the place that has sprouted signs professing love and loyalty to Delhomme. the Carolina Panthers' quarterback, in every yard, including ones in front of the homes of his parents, Jerry and Marcia Delhomme, and Jeff Delhomme, his older brother. There are, in fact, signs rooting for Delhomme everywhere in this sleepy Cajun town of 7,500 where the street signs are written in English and French.

In front of the Bayou Cabin's Bed and Breakfast, which is next to a 20-foot replica of the town's patron saint, the crawfish, another sign reads:

De Boudin's Hot.

Da Beer tis cold.

Jake, he's gone win

dat Super Bowl.

Down at Mulate's, the Original Cajun Restaurant that happens to be Jake's favorite place, the large board out front blares: "Congratulations, Jake and the Panthers. NFC Champs and Super Bowl Bound!" At Simon's Pharmacy: "Bring it home Delhomme." And at the Broken Spoke, management's wish of good luck to Delhomme is accompanied by an advertisement for "X-treme Karaoke" on Sunday nights. There are limits to cheering on the town's favorite son, even when many of the natives can be spotted wearing buttons that proclaim "Geaux Jake Geaux."

Yes, these days Delhomme could command anything he wants in Breaux Bridge (pronounced BRO-bridge), which is ruled by Mayor Jack Delhomme, an older second cousin not to be confused with one of the 21 first cousins on his father's side who still live here. But what Delhomme will want, friends and family members said, is mostly just to be left alone.

Actually, no one is ever completely left alone here. The people are too friendly and too familiar. Cars routinely honk as they pass in front of the homes of acquaintances, prompting smiles and friendly waves all around.

"People are so nice and considerate around here. I'll go to the grocery store and spend two hours there before I get home. Not because of the traffic, but because everyone knows everyone's family and what the kids are doing, and you end up talking to everybody," said Jeff Delhomme, a father of three. "Everyone's always worried about the other person. They're always asking about the kids - and about how Jake's doing. I'm proud of him."

Jake Delhomme's modest cottage home is about 200 yards away from the two-story brick home of his parents at the end of a long driveway that is mostly gravel. Jeff's house is less than a mile down the road. The three families own several racehorses that graze in a fenced-in field behind his father's house, where there is a large red barn.

Sometimes Jake will be out cutting his grass - yes, he cuts his own grass on a riding lawnmower - and someone will pull off the side of the road and beckon for him to chat or sign an autograph. Delhomme always obliges, according to Jeff.

So Jake Delhomme's true wish will be to come home after Sunday and fit right back in without a fuss, even if he happens to be the starting quarterback of a NFL team that just played in professional football's biggest game.

Most folks born and raised in this sleepy, slow-moving community never leave. Not because they can't, but because they simply don't want to. Jake Delhomme has left more than most - even spending two years playing overseas in NFL Europe. But he always comes back.

Always has. Always will.

"I'll never leave the place. I love it. And Jakes loves it also," Jeff Delhomme said.

Jerry Delhomme said that the best events in town start with "some good food and maybe a few Bud Lights." He also added: "We don't leave. We don't fly very far from the nest. There's just something about this place that we love."

Growing up in a small town

The town of Breaux Bridge and the people there are what molded Delhomme into the person he is today. But don't mistake the friendliness and casual approach to a beautiful day for something it isn't. Delhomme is no Bobby Boucher, and both he and his family resent the comparison to the dim-witted character from Adam Sandler's Waterboy movie - even though the comparison has been jokingly made even by some of Delhomme's Panthers' teammates.

"We're proud people, and we're proud of what Jake has accomplished this year," Jerry Delhomme said. "It's a reward for us. It's a reward for all of Jake's hard work, but it's a reward for us as parents and family, too. And you know what? If Jake had not been a football player, he would be in another field doing well. That's the confidence that I have in him."

Jake Delhomme is always careful to point out to reporters who ask about his hometown that he always got good grades in school, all the way through Teurlings Catholic High School and in college at nearby Louisiana-Lafayette. If he wasn't playing football, he said, he probably would be a physical therapist.

Jerry Delhomme said that his youngest son always has been driven to be the best, no matter what the pursuit. He recalled one time when Jack, now the mayor, dropped by for a visit with a friend who used to be a sprinter and the man's son, who obviously had inherited the gift of speed. The boy and Jake started racing.

The boy won.

"Let's do it again," Jake told him.

They did it again. Jake lost once more.

"Let's go again," Jake repeated.

And so it went until Jack Delhomme finally went up to the young visitor and gave him a tip.

"You'd better let him win because that is the only way you're going to get rid of Jake," Jack Delhomme told the boy.

Laughing at the memory now, Jack Delhomme said that Jake would have run all night if that's what it would have taken to win.

"He was going to keep going and going and going. I will never forget that day. That little boy was getting worn out," Jack said.

Jeff was the fastest boy in the Delhomme family, and eventually went on to play wide receiver at McNeese State in Louisiana. Jerry used to mark off roughly 40 yards in the yards and time his boys as they covered the distance, but soon grew to regret the ritual because Jake was fiercely competitive about trying to register the best times.

"The older boy was very fast.... So I would time Jeff and then I would time Jake, and after awhile I would be like, 'OK, Jake, come on. Let's go in the house.' And he would be like, 'No, I know I can beat that time,' Jerry said.

"And he was sharp enough to know that once I had my fill, I would lie about a time so I could go in. I would make something up and he would be like, 'No, no way, you're lying. I know I ran faster the other time.' "

Delhomme: the formative years

Delhomme may not have been a world-class sprinter, but he was a very good athlete who quickly excelled in a number of other sports - especially baseball, basketball and football. Along the way, around seventh grade, he began dating the girl who would become his wife.

Sonny Charpentier, now athletics director at Teurlings High, coached Delhomme in basketball and was offensive coordinator on the football team when Delhomme played there. He recalled one basketball game when, even though Teurlings was winning, he noticed Delhomme fuming as he headed to the locker room for halftime.

"I could read him like a book, and he was (ticked off). I was like, 'What's wrong?' And he says, 'So-and-so won't pass me the ball in the low post.' I had seen it, too, and he was right," Charpentier said.

"So I made some adjustments at halftime and told him, 'OK, we're going to get the ball to you. What are you gonna do with it?' I think he scored 30-some points in the second half."

Then there was the football game when Delhomme almost single-handedly disposed of a rival school. He passed for 400 yards and four touchdowns, intercepted two passes as a safety, and then, even though he wasn't the regular place-kicker, talked the coaches into letting him attempt a field goal that put Teurlings ahead late.

When the other team drove right down the field and got into position for its own field-goal attempt that would have won the game, guess who blocked it? That's right, Delhomme.

"He pretty much did it all for us in that game," Charpentier said.

In his spare time, Delhomme ran track and was a 1993 Louisiana state finalist in the high jump and the 110-meter high hurdles. When Teurlings retired his No. 11 football jersey later on, Delhomme cried during the ceremony.

He was recruited, but not by any of the big football schools. Duke offered a scholarship; both Army and Navy were interested. But Delhomme didn't want to stray too far from Breaux Bridge, so he went to Louisiana-Lafayette, just a few miles down the road.

Delhomme: The pros

In high school, Delhomme was always overshadowed by two other Louisiana quarterbacks -Peyton Manning and Josh Booty. In college, even though he started as a freshman and passed for more than 9,000 yards in his career, no one outside of Lafayette and Breaux Bridge seemed to notice much.

When he made the practice squad of the New Orleans Saints in 1997, the townsfolk beamed with pride. But Delhomme wanted more.

It wasn't until he served two stints in NFL Europe - once as Kurt Warner's backup for the Amsterdam Admirals - that he finally secured a job as a reserve quarterback on the Saints' roster.

It was a job it seemed he could have had forever. But when he became an unrestricted free agent and both the Panthers and the Dallas Cowboys hinted that he would be able to compete for a starting job if he signed with them, the entire Delhomme family did some serious thinking.

Jerry told Jake he supported whatever he wanted to do. Jake finally decided that the Panthers offered the best opportunity.

"I look at it this way, Jake has no animosity toward the Saints. He could have been very comfortable there, making a lucrative salary, just holding a clipboard," Jerry Delhomme said. "But when Jake made his move to Carolina, I trusted his judgment when he said, 'Well, I'm not going to Carolina to hold a clipboard. I think I will be given a chance to compete (for the starting job).' I think that was one of the main reasons he left. He saw something there."

When the Panthers were playing their regular-season opener against Jacksonville at Ericsson Stadium, Jake's wife, Keri, noticed her husband warming up after halftime. She grabbed her cell phone and called Jerry Delhomme, thus beginning a string of phone calls trumpeting the news throughout Breaux Bridge.

It's that way all the time now. Unlike larger towns where fans tend to congregate for big games in sports bars, there is no true sports bar here. Folks are more likely to gather in small groups at each other's houses, where they cook crawfish etoufee, stewed rabbit or pork barbeque and run to the phone to call each other every time Delhomme completes a big pass.

Cagey Cajun superstitions

Cajuns are a superstitious lot, though, and because the mayor came over to Jerry's house and sat in a certain seat during the Jacksonville game, which Jake won by hitting wide receiver Ricky Proehl with a 12-yard touchdown pass on fourth down with 16 seconds left, the mayor had to come over and sit in the exact seat every game for the rest of the season.

Jerry Delhomme was reluctant even to come to Charlotte for two home games because he didn't want to break the routine of having people over and sitting in their usual seats during the Panthers' games.

"We're a very superstitious crowd. As a matter of fact, Jake didn't want us to go to the Philadelphia (NFC championship) game because of the rowdiness of the crowd and all that," Jerry Delhomme said. "Players would tell him they weren't having their wives come up, and he didn't want to worry about all that.

"So we did that thing here. And I looked around right before the game started and I don't see William, my grandchild who is about 11. I'm like, 'William's not here.' And Jeff's wife says, 'He's at a sleepover at a friend's.' And I'm like, 'Well, you've got to go get him. He's got to be here.' She said, 'OK, but you know he did miss one (game).' And then I was like, 'Oh, that's OK then. It's broken.' But if he hadn't missed one earlier, we would have had to go and get him. That's just the way we are. It's terrible, but that's the way we are."

Ask around town about Delhomme and no one can really say anything bad about him. Charpentier said that he "cusses too much, but that might be a family trait." Others have foggy memories of a fight in high school, but say that it wasn't Jake's fault and "sometimes you have to stand up and defend yourself." Someone else mentioned that he's "tight, frugal, whatever you want to call it ... but that's better than being the other way."

Now their favorite son is preparing to play in Sunday's Super Bowl. Some will make the 220-mile drive to Houston, but more will stay behind in Breaux Bridge, where they - and Delhomme - like it best.

"I don't think any of us truly realize how big of a deal this is," Jeff Delhomme said. "It's just like how Jake looks at every game as just a game. That's how we're looking at it. After the Jacksonville game, when he came in and brought them back, my season was complete. I don't care what Jake does the rest of the season. He's finally got to the point where he's proved some people wrong."

They don't ask for much in Breaux Bridge, and neither does the toast of the town. But they would like for him to come home soon.

• Joe Menzer can be reached at jmenzer@wsjournal.com