June 19, 2024 • 13 mins
Jim Mora will forever be remembered for his iconic "playoffs?!" postgame rant in his 4th and final season as Head Coach of the Indianapolis Colts. But the story behind Mora's iconic rant is equally as iconic.
Did I mention the sound bite isn't even the most outrageous of Mora's career and that the particular target of his playoffs tirade was none other than Peyton Manning?
Join me as I explore the full story that led to Jim Mora's infamous playoff quote on November 25, 2001.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
The first known use of the word playoff comes from
a sixteen oh seven play called Lests to Make You
Marry by Thomas Decker and George Wilkins. At the time,
it meant to begin to finish, a combination of the
word play meaning to commence and the word off meaning
(00:30):
to finish completely. The first known use of the word
playoff in relation to sports came some three hundred years later,
in nineteen oh one, thanks to an article by Munzie's
Magazine of New York, which wrote, We're going to playoff
for the Woolcott Cup. The word and its meaning haven't
changed much in recent years, but playoff formats themselves have.
(00:53):
The college football playoffs have expanded the field to add
more teams. In recent years, the NBA has added the
play In Tournament to expand how many teams might be
able to make the playoffs, and many other sports are
doing the same. But that's besides the point. Playoffs, no
matter the formatter style, have the power to hurt or
heal fan bases, define careers, and create lasting legacies, for
(01:17):
better or for worse. But the word playoff itself is
forever connected to one man, or more specifically, the way
one NFL coach said the word in a postgame rant.
I don't know what it is about sports press conferences
(01:38):
and words that start with the letter P, but there's
some clear relationship, and it's kind of weird. I mean,
when you think about the most iconic press conferences in
sports history, two of the top five in my mind
at least the most famous are Alan Iverson's practice rant,
which conveniently you can actually learn more about by listening
(02:00):
to episode one, and then right up there along with it,
we have the topic of today's episode, Jim Mora's epic
playoffs press conference meltdown, And if my impersonation didn't do
it for you, here's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Uh, playoffs, don't talk about playoffs? You kidding me? Playoffs?
I just hope we can win a game.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
You see, Mori's epic postgame rant has a lot more
to the story than meets the eye or ear. But
this is sports Dot MP three, the podcast that explores
true stories and missing contexts behind sports most iconic sounds.
So you already knew that, but you probably didn't know
that Morris rant called out his own team's turnovers, specifically
(02:45):
the four interceptions thrown by the Colts quarterback at the time,
a dude named Peyton Manning. So without further ado, let's
get into it. Jim Morrow Senior took over as head
(03:10):
coach of the New Orleans Saints in nineteen eighty six.
The Saints, who had recently been purchased by new owner
Tom Benson just last year, were one of the worst
franchises in the entirety of the National Football League, and
that's not an exaggeration. The Saints had never talied a
winning record or even made the playoffs in its first
nineteen seasons.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yikes. But Mora successfully.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Turned the entire franchise around, or I guess helped tear
it down and rebuild it from scratch. He recruited a
few players from the United States Football League, where he
had been head coach prior to joining the Saints, to
join the roster, and he helped lead the team to
seven wins and nine losses in his first season. The
following season would see the Saints enter Week six with
three wins and two losses, and they would lose that
(03:57):
week's game in heartbreaking fashion to the San Francisco forty
nine ers by just two points and showing a sign
of what would come years later. Mora would drop one
of his most memorable postgame rants after this game, forever
known as the could a, would a should a speech.
And if you're not sure, why just listen.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
We aren't good enough. They're better than us, black and white.
Simple fact, could have, would have, should have is the
difference to what I'm talking about. The good team. Don't
come in and say could have. They get it done,
all right, it's that simple. I'm tired of saying could have,
should have, would have. That's why we ain't good enough yet,
because we're saying could have and they ain't.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
And here's where things get interesting. This speech worked.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
The Saints would actually go on to win the next
nine straight games and enter the playoffs twelve and three,
the first winning season in the Saints' history, and it's
for his playoff Berth. Whatever magic that speech had on
the team, however, failed to work in the playoffs, as
they would lose their wild card matchup against the Minnesota
(05:10):
Vikings that year and failed to win any of the
other three playoff games they would have under Mora as
head coach in the next eight and a half seasons,
And yes, I did say eight and a half. That
brings us to nineteen ninety six, Mora's last at New Orleans,
and while he never took the Saints over the top,
he did get the franchise into great shape, leaving them
(05:33):
at the time as the all time record holder for wins.
But his departure from the team midway through the season
was a little bit less positive. This season had started
off poorly, and it all peaked at the end of
a loss to the Carolina Panthers, which put the Saints
at two wins and six losses. Mora entered the postgame
(05:53):
press conference against the Panthers pretty angry, leading him to
drop an all timer, and he literally resigned the very.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Next day after this quote, So what was this line? Well,
I'm glad you asked.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
We couldn't do Diddley Pooh offensively. We couldn't make a
first down, we couldn't run the ball. We didn't try
to run the ball. We couldn't complete a pass. We
sucked the second half. We sucked Diddley Pooh.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
So after dropping that iconic Diddley Pooh line, Mora took
a year off and worked as an NBC color analyst.
After the Saints' tenure, and after a year of that,
he returned in nineteen ninety eight as head coach of
the Indianapolis Colts, who had just drafted a rookie quarterback
(06:46):
by the name of Peyton Manning. Morris started off with
a three and thirteen season his first year at the Colts. However,
similarly to his tenure at the Saints, his second year
in charge brought better results. The Colts finished the nineteen
ninety nine regular season with thirteen wins and three losses,
(07:08):
constituting the largest turnaround between two seasons in NFL history,
but they would lose in the playoffs that year and
the following year as well, which definitely ratchet up the
pressure on Mora, who at that point in his more
than twelve year career had never won a playoff game
in the NFL. Yeah, you know, Skip Bayless would be
chopping at the bits with that. So in his fourth
(07:31):
season with the Colts, it was now or never for Mora,
and he clearly harbored some tense feelings towards Peyton Manning.
Manning was clearly the franchise's golden boy, so to speak,
and at the time, Payne was still developing into the
Hall of Fame talent he eventually became, and he did
have a habit of throwing a lot of interceptions, the
second most in the NFL that season, albeit a lot
(07:52):
of touchdowns too. Adding the fact that Mora was close
friends with the team's defensive coordinator, Vic Fangio, who had
been blamed by the team's GA, that's general manager for
many of the Colts issues, and you get the idea
that the general vibes around the team were not good
to say the least, and that finally brings us to
the press conference itself. The meltown would come due to
(08:17):
a familiar foe for Mora, the San Francisco forty nine Ers.
After a week eleven loss to the forty nine ers
that basically crushed the Colts playoff hopes for that season,
highlighted by a four interception game thrown by Peyton Manning,
and Mora was pretty pissed. To make matters even worse,
(08:39):
the game ball had gone to Jim Mora Junior. Yeah,
that's right, his son, who was the defensive coordinator for
the forty nine ers team, and so Mora was understandably upset,
and when he entered the press conference one of the
first things he did was immediately go on to defend
his defense while blaming a big part of the season
(09:00):
and the loss on the offense, namely Peyton Minning.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Well, I'll start off by saying this, do not blame
that game on the defense.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
I don't care who you play, whether it's a high
school team, a junior college team, a college team, much
less an NFL team. When you turn the ball over
five times, four interceptions, one for a touchdown, three others
in field position to set up touchdowns, you ain't compete anybody.
I just talked about anybody, all right, And that was
(09:34):
a disgraceful performance. In my opinion, we threw that game.
We gave it away by doing that. We gave them
the friggin game. In my opinion, that sucked. Holy crap.
I don't know who the hell we think when we
are when we do something like that. Unbelievable five turnovers,
one of them for we've thrown four interceptions for touchdowns
(09:56):
this year.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
How might be an NFL record?
Speaker 4 (09:58):
That's pitiful, absolutely pittable to perform like that, pittuble.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Tim Bragg, the infamous reporter who actually asked Maura the
question that would lead to his playoffs quote. Notice right
away that Mora was really upset, and when he saw
his opportunity, he asked the head coach, Hey, you're probably
gonna have to win out to make the playoffs. But
reportedly Maurra didn't hear what Braggetts asked, and so Bragg
(10:30):
repeated the question, and that time More responded.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Uh, playoffs. Don't talk about playoffs. You kidding me. Playoffs.
I just hope we can win a game. Playoffs. Don't
talk about playoffs. You kidding me? Playoffs. I just hope
we can win a game.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
After the press conference, Mora actually did immediately grow concerned
with how it's rant would be perceived, but only because
he had called out Peyton Manning's performance, although not by
name and not because of how he had said playoffs,
and his concern wasn't without merit. Peyton Manning would mention
to the press about a week later that he was
bothered by morris comments, but that was a blimp on
(11:16):
the radar and the true fallout of the quote. The
Colts would only win two more games that season, and
although Manning would throw twenty three interceptions, the Colts defense
would finish that season with the most points conceded in
the NFL, so it definitely was not all on Manning
by any means, and he went on to have a
pretty goaded career. So yeah, now, Mora would never coach
(11:38):
in the NFL again. And while it sounds harsh, he
did finish his NFL coaching career with an above five
hundred rating. Was the Saints franchise leader and wins before
Sean Payton. I don't know what it is with him,
and Peyton's surpassed him in twenty sixteen, and he was
definitely paid a lot more than I've ever made from
a single Corps Light commercial he made where he made
(11:58):
fun of his own rant in two thousand and six, so.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Good on him for that.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
And while more might not be remembered with the likes
of the NFL's all time greatest coaches or most inspiring figures,
he also won't go down as a true failure. And
while the way he said playoffs might be remembered long
after his turnaround of the Saints franchise is forgotten, he
will forever be remembered as the playoffs guy instead of
(12:22):
the diddly poo guy. And I think that's a huge
win and that's a wrap. I'm will goatchel and thanks
for listening to this episode of Sports Dot MP three.
As always, please leave a like or common if you enjoyed,
and be sure to tune in for the episode coming
out in two weeks time.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Peacea
The first known use of the word playoff comes from
a sixteen oh seven play called Lests to Make You
Marry by Thomas Decker and George Wilkins. At the time,
it meant to begin to finish, a combination of the
word play meaning to commence and the word off meaning
(00:30):
to finish completely. The first known use of the word
playoff in relation to sports came some three hundred years later,
in nineteen oh one, thanks to an article by Munzie's
Magazine of New York, which wrote, We're going to playoff
for the Woolcott Cup. The word and its meaning haven't
changed much in recent years, but playoff formats themselves have.
(00:53):
The college football playoffs have expanded the field to add
more teams. In recent years, the NBA has added the
play In Tournament to expand how many teams might be
able to make the playoffs, and many other sports are
doing the same. But that's besides the point. Playoffs, no
matter the formatter style, have the power to hurt or
heal fan bases, define careers, and create lasting legacies, for
(01:17):
better or for worse. But the word playoff itself is
forever connected to one man, or more specifically, the way
one NFL coach said the word in a postgame rant.
I don't know what it is about sports press conferences
(01:38):
and words that start with the letter P, but there's
some clear relationship, and it's kind of weird. I mean,
when you think about the most iconic press conferences in
sports history, two of the top five in my mind
at least the most famous are Alan Iverson's practice rant,
which conveniently you can actually learn more about by listening
(02:00):
to episode one, and then right up there along with it,
we have the topic of today's episode, Jim Mora's epic
playoffs press conference meltdown, And if my impersonation didn't do
it for you, here's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Uh, playoffs, don't talk about playoffs? You kidding me? Playoffs?
I just hope we can win a game.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
You see, Mori's epic postgame rant has a lot more
to the story than meets the eye or ear. But
this is sports Dot MP three, the podcast that explores
true stories and missing contexts behind sports most iconic sounds.
So you already knew that, but you probably didn't know
that Morris rant called out his own team's turnovers, specifically
(02:45):
the four interceptions thrown by the Colts quarterback at the time,
a dude named Peyton Manning. So without further ado, let's
get into it. Jim Morrow Senior took over as head
(03:10):
coach of the New Orleans Saints in nineteen eighty six.
The Saints, who had recently been purchased by new owner
Tom Benson just last year, were one of the worst
franchises in the entirety of the National Football League, and
that's not an exaggeration. The Saints had never talied a
winning record or even made the playoffs in its first
nineteen seasons.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yikes. But Mora successfully.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Turned the entire franchise around, or I guess helped tear
it down and rebuild it from scratch. He recruited a
few players from the United States Football League, where he
had been head coach prior to joining the Saints, to
join the roster, and he helped lead the team to
seven wins and nine losses in his first season. The
following season would see the Saints enter Week six with
three wins and two losses, and they would lose that
(03:57):
week's game in heartbreaking fashion to the San Francisco forty
nine ers by just two points and showing a sign
of what would come years later. Mora would drop one
of his most memorable postgame rants after this game, forever
known as the could a, would a should a speech.
And if you're not sure, why just listen.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
We aren't good enough. They're better than us, black and white.
Simple fact, could have, would have, should have is the
difference to what I'm talking about. The good team. Don't
come in and say could have. They get it done,
all right, it's that simple. I'm tired of saying could have,
should have, would have. That's why we ain't good enough yet,
because we're saying could have and they ain't.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
And here's where things get interesting. This speech worked.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
The Saints would actually go on to win the next
nine straight games and enter the playoffs twelve and three,
the first winning season in the Saints' history, and it's
for his playoff Berth. Whatever magic that speech had on
the team, however, failed to work in the playoffs, as
they would lose their wild card matchup against the Minnesota
(05:10):
Vikings that year and failed to win any of the
other three playoff games they would have under Mora as
head coach in the next eight and a half seasons,
And yes, I did say eight and a half. That
brings us to nineteen ninety six, Mora's last at New Orleans,
and while he never took the Saints over the top,
he did get the franchise into great shape, leaving them
(05:33):
at the time as the all time record holder for wins.
But his departure from the team midway through the season
was a little bit less positive. This season had started
off poorly, and it all peaked at the end of
a loss to the Carolina Panthers, which put the Saints
at two wins and six losses. Mora entered the postgame
(05:53):
press conference against the Panthers pretty angry, leading him to
drop an all timer, and he literally resigned the very.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Next day after this quote, So what was this line? Well,
I'm glad you asked.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
We couldn't do Diddley Pooh offensively. We couldn't make a
first down, we couldn't run the ball. We didn't try
to run the ball. We couldn't complete a pass. We
sucked the second half. We sucked Diddley Pooh.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
So after dropping that iconic Diddley Pooh line, Mora took
a year off and worked as an NBC color analyst.
After the Saints' tenure, and after a year of that,
he returned in nineteen ninety eight as head coach of
the Indianapolis Colts, who had just drafted a rookie quarterback
(06:46):
by the name of Peyton Manning. Morris started off with
a three and thirteen season his first year at the Colts. However,
similarly to his tenure at the Saints, his second year
in charge brought better results. The Colts finished the nineteen
ninety nine regular season with thirteen wins and three losses,
(07:08):
constituting the largest turnaround between two seasons in NFL history,
but they would lose in the playoffs that year and
the following year as well, which definitely ratchet up the
pressure on Mora, who at that point in his more
than twelve year career had never won a playoff game
in the NFL. Yeah, you know, Skip Bayless would be
chopping at the bits with that. So in his fourth
(07:31):
season with the Colts, it was now or never for Mora,
and he clearly harbored some tense feelings towards Peyton Manning.
Manning was clearly the franchise's golden boy, so to speak,
and at the time, Payne was still developing into the
Hall of Fame talent he eventually became, and he did
have a habit of throwing a lot of interceptions, the
second most in the NFL that season, albeit a lot
(07:52):
of touchdowns too. Adding the fact that Mora was close
friends with the team's defensive coordinator, Vic Fangio, who had
been blamed by the team's GA, that's general manager for
many of the Colts issues, and you get the idea
that the general vibes around the team were not good
to say the least, and that finally brings us to
the press conference itself. The meltown would come due to
(08:17):
a familiar foe for Mora, the San Francisco forty nine Ers.
After a week eleven loss to the forty nine ers
that basically crushed the Colts playoff hopes for that season,
highlighted by a four interception game thrown by Peyton Manning,
and Mora was pretty pissed. To make matters even worse,
(08:39):
the game ball had gone to Jim Mora Junior. Yeah,
that's right, his son, who was the defensive coordinator for
the forty nine ers team, and so Mora was understandably upset,
and when he entered the press conference one of the
first things he did was immediately go on to defend
his defense while blaming a big part of the season
(09:00):
and the loss on the offense, namely Peyton Minning.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Well, I'll start off by saying this, do not blame
that game on the defense.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
I don't care who you play, whether it's a high
school team, a junior college team, a college team, much
less an NFL team. When you turn the ball over
five times, four interceptions, one for a touchdown, three others
in field position to set up touchdowns, you ain't compete anybody.
I just talked about anybody, all right, And that was
(09:34):
a disgraceful performance. In my opinion, we threw that game.
We gave it away by doing that. We gave them
the friggin game. In my opinion, that sucked. Holy crap.
I don't know who the hell we think when we
are when we do something like that. Unbelievable five turnovers,
one of them for we've thrown four interceptions for touchdowns
(09:56):
this year.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
How might be an NFL record?
Speaker 4 (09:58):
That's pitiful, absolutely pittable to perform like that, pittuble.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Tim Bragg, the infamous reporter who actually asked Maura the
question that would lead to his playoffs quote. Notice right
away that Mora was really upset, and when he saw
his opportunity, he asked the head coach, Hey, you're probably
gonna have to win out to make the playoffs. But
reportedly Maurra didn't hear what Braggetts asked, and so Bragg
(10:30):
repeated the question, and that time More responded.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Uh, playoffs. Don't talk about playoffs. You kidding me. Playoffs.
I just hope we can win a game. Playoffs. Don't
talk about playoffs. You kidding me? Playoffs. I just hope
we can win a game.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
After the press conference, Mora actually did immediately grow concerned
with how it's rant would be perceived, but only because
he had called out Peyton Manning's performance, although not by
name and not because of how he had said playoffs,
and his concern wasn't without merit. Peyton Manning would mention
to the press about a week later that he was
bothered by morris comments, but that was a blimp on
(11:16):
the radar and the true fallout of the quote. The
Colts would only win two more games that season, and
although Manning would throw twenty three interceptions, the Colts defense
would finish that season with the most points conceded in
the NFL, so it definitely was not all on Manning
by any means, and he went on to have a
pretty goaded career. So yeah, now, Mora would never coach
(11:38):
in the NFL again. And while it sounds harsh, he
did finish his NFL coaching career with an above five
hundred rating. Was the Saints franchise leader and wins before
Sean Payton. I don't know what it is with him,
and Peyton's surpassed him in twenty sixteen, and he was
definitely paid a lot more than I've ever made from
a single Corps Light commercial he made where he made
(11:58):
fun of his own rant in two thousand and six, so.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Good on him for that.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
And while more might not be remembered with the likes
of the NFL's all time greatest coaches or most inspiring figures,
he also won't go down as a true failure. And
while the way he said playoffs might be remembered long
after his turnaround of the Saints franchise is forgotten, he
will forever be remembered as the playoffs guy instead of
(12:22):
the diddly poo guy. And I think that's a huge
win and that's a wrap. I'm will goatchel and thanks
for listening to this episode of Sports Dot MP three.
As always, please leave a like or common if you enjoyed,
and be sure to tune in for the episode coming
out in two weeks time.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Peacea
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