Kiss of death?

Jeff Duncan on Saints backup QB Chase Daniel:

Daniel is the definition of gamer. He's not the most spectacular practice player in the world, but the guy turns it on when the lights come on and the competition intensifies. From Monday to Saturday, he's ordinary. But on game days, he's often extraordinary.

In that respect, he reminds me of Jake Delhomme. Saints fans crucified Jim Haslett and Mike McCarthy for not playing Delhomme over Aaron Brooks in the early 2000s. But the fact is Delhomme was a terrible practice player. He never showed enough in practice to warrant starting over Brooks. But when the lights came on, Delhomme was money. The guy, as Rick Venturi once told me, had ice water in his veins.

Um... in case nobody remembers this, Jake Delhomme is a pretty below average quarterback who has a terrible habit of turning the ball over. The fact that he was a popular Saints backup had a lot more to do with frustration over Brooks never living up to his promise than anything else. Well there was that as well as some other issues drunken talk radio callers like to dance very near to every now and then. Anyway, at the very least can we please not set up Jake Delhomme as the paragon of quarterbacking excellence we wish our players to emulate?