He is the Barack Obama of football, a fresh-faced comer whose rapid rise has put him smack in the crosshairs of Baltimore's coaching search.
Three years after retiring as a player, is Jason Garrett ready to run the Ravens?
Those who know the Dallas Cowboys' offensive coordinator say he is. Garrett, a Princeton graduate, has the smarts, the savvy, the winning smile. He knows when to teach - and when to learn.
He is, they say, the brain without the Brian.
See the clipboard in his hand? Garrett, a former journeyman quarterback, has held that coaching prop for many of his 15 years in the NFL, the first 12 as an understudy who clung to his jobs on guts and guile.
He interviewed for the Ravens' coaching position yesterday.
"Jason is a special individual," said Ernie Accorsi, one-time general manager of the Baltimore Colts, who retired last year as GM of the New York Giants. In 2000, Accorsi signed Garrett as insurance for the club that reached the Super Bowl but lost to the Ravens.
"He is positive, upbeat and a natural leader," Accorsi said of Garrett. "There is something stabilizing about Jason.
"I remember seeing him at breakfast before the Super Bowl. I told him, `Jason, general managers don't sleep much, but whatever sleep I get is because of you.'"
Never mind his youth, Accorsi said. At 41, Garrett would be one of the NFL's youngest head coaches.
"Don Shula was 33 when he took over the Colts [in 1963]," Accorsi said. "What coaching skills does Jason have? I don't know of any that he doesn't have."
Those attributes include:
Being a team player.
When starting quarterback Troy Aikman pulled a hamstring in 1993, Garrett expected to get the nod. But the Cowboys signed veteran Bernie Kosar and gave him the job, provided he learned the offense on the fly.
Garrett would teach him.
For four days, the two huddled in a hotel room, Kosar cramming with his mentor. That Sunday, Kosar played and Dallas won.
"I couldn't have done it without [Garrett's help]," Kosar said later. "Jason is one of the few quarterbacks I actually learned something from."
Persistence.
At 14, Garrett was determined to follow his father, Jim, to the pros. Dad was an assistant coach for the Cleveland Browns from 1978 through 1984.
"One day, I mentioned to Jason that [Hall of Fame quarterback] Fran Tarkenton used to keep his arm sharp in winter by hanging a rug on the wall of his attic and throwing footballs at it," Jim Garrett recalled. "For the next three months, in our house, all you heard up there was thump, thump, thump."
