Ten Things I Think I Think

	Don't expect Matt Leinart to be shopping for places to live near the French Quarter. John Biever/SI

1. I think the reports over the weekend that the New Orleans Saints are interested in drafting Matt Leinart with the second pick in the draft are absurd. The Saints are not taking Leinart, not unless they want to set a world record for dumbness. You don't spend what they spent on Drew Brees ($10 million in the first year of the deal, $12 million due in a roster bonus next March) and then go spend $22 million more in guaranteed money on another quarterback. This is the logic I've heard from people when discussing the Saints and Leinart: Well, they're not sure Brees is going to stay healthy with the shoulder injury he's rehabbing, so they've got to play it safe and make sure they've got a quarterback of the future. Well, OK. That's the same thing as saying you're going to buy one house that needs a lot of work and then, because you've got enough money to buy another one in the same area, you buy that one too -- just because you want to make sure you like one of them. Teams don't acquire two marquee quarterbacks in the span of two months. They just don't. If they believe there's a good chance Brees won't be healthy enough to continue his career at the same level as the last two seasons, they'd never have invested in him. Which brings us to ...

2. I think you should believe nothing you read that comes out of a general manager's mouth in the next 12 days. And I mean nothing. Not that they're lying. And I mean that. It's just that it does a general manager no good to say with certainty and honesty what he plans to do and what exactly he thinks of a player entering the draft.

3. I think I'd like to explain, for those of you who have just become draftniks in the last 5-10 years, how the landscape has changed in draft coverage, and why it's useless to use what front-office types say as any sort of barometer at this time of year. We in the media used to be able to trust coaches and GMs leading up to the draft. I remember covering the Bengals for the Cincinnati Enquirer in 1984 and going to Sam Wyche and the Bengals' position coaches before the draft and saying, "Hey, I'd like to be right when I write the morning of the draft about who you're going to take. If I promise not to share this info with out-of-town writers, can you give me a handle on what you're going to do?''

So Wyche and Jim McNally, the offensive line coach, and Jim Anderson, the running backs coach, led me down the right roads -- defensive tackle Pete Koch, linebacker Ricky Hunley, guard Brian Blados, quarterback Boomer Esiason and running back Stanford Jennings. I looked like a genius the morning of the draft when I wrote that these were the guys the Bengals were looking to choose and then it worked out that the team got all of them. That doesn't seem like 22 years ago; it seems like 22 decades ago.

All I'm saying is that with the Internet and the draft sites now, a coach would be idiotic to sidle up to even the most trusted beat man and say: "Psssst. We're taking Joe Schlabotnik in the first round. You've got the scoop on this one." The reason Wyche could be forthcoming 22 years ago is because, unless Cleveland coach Sam Rutigliano or Pittsburgh coach Chuck Noll had a spy in Cincinnati who read the paper the morning of the draft, no one had any idea what was in the paper that day. There was no sportspages.com, no profooballtalk.com. Al Gore hadn't invented the Internet yet.

Fast-forward to today. Last fall, Giants GM Ernie Accorsi appeared at a charity dinner I helped arrange in Manhattan, and the first thing he said to six guests at the table was: "I have to know -- is anyone here planning to put anything I say out on the Internet, or on some blog somewhere? If you are, please tell me. If not, I'll be able to be a lot more forthcoming. I've been burned on that before.'' No one was a blogger, so Accorsi told some grand stories.

Today, every time a coach or general manager says something to a beat man or columnist, there's a good chance it's going to be on computer screens worldwide within hours. My point is, when the Saints say they have legitimate interest in Leinart, all they're doing is playing the same game every other team at the top of every draft plays: trying to get the teams below them to believe there's a shred of doubt about New Orleans' real intentions.