Jim Caldwell - the Best Story in the NFL This Season

The greatest story in the NFL this season, and possibly in league history, is flying under the radar. Considering how difficult it is to win at all, Jim Caldwell's success with the Indianapolis Colts is nothing short of walking on water.

The man is 13-0 in his rookie campaign as an NFL head coach. No one has won more games to start his career. Jim Caldwell could very well win the Super Bowl without losing a football game.

Jim Caldwell? Really?

Had anyone taken a close look at Caldwell's resume prior to this season's stunning success, what they might find is "career assistant," or "position coach," or "minor college head coach." That is about it. What they would not find is "will have greater regular season success in his rookie season than did Halas, Brown, Lombardi, or Walsh."

Jim Caldwell went 26-63 in eight seasons at Wake Forest. When you're the head football coach at a basketball school in a basketball conference, you might as well be in the witness protection program. It takes a lot of losing to get you fired when no one really cares what you do, the kind of losing that says "never gets the big boy headset again."

He got the big boy headset again. His next loss in the NFL will be his first. How the Cleveland did this happen?

First, it helps if one has a guardian angel named Tony Dungy. Dungy is one of those rare individuals who managed to have genuine success in the NFL without losing his humanity in the process. He didn't just teach football to his players, he taught it to his assistants. In his last season as Tampa Bay head coach, Dungy took Caldwell from the ACC and made him his quarterbacks coach. When he moved to Indianapolis the next season, he took Caldwell with him.

What happened next is nothing short of a miracle.

Caldwell spent seven seasons with Dungy, GM Bill Polian, offensive coordinator Tom Moore, and quarterback Peyton Manning, the equivalent of a Ph.D in All Things Colt. Polian is only the finest franchise architect of the last 30 years, having built three Super Bowl contenders in the salary cap/free agency era. Tom Moore is only the guy who gave Peyton Manning his toys, and Manning is only going to the Hall of Fame.

There was nothing to unlearn here, no bad lessons or questionable decisions. Caldwell learned that success in the NFL does not mean "spend yourself into salary cap perdition for the chance at a ring this season." Success in the NFL means "being in contention every season." The theory is that if a team is good enough to win it all, eventually they will win it all, as the Colts did in 2006. Success means good players and good preparation. Success means that there are no shortcuts or wasted draft picks or excuses.

For the Colts, success did not mean going outside of the franchise. Promotion from within was only natural. Who else would know the Colt Way but a Colt?

In fact, Caldwell's success could only have happened in Indianapolis. How many offensive coordinators as accomplished as Tom Moore would be satisfied to let Peyton Manning take all the credit? Most would have polished up the CV and wasted a few seasons trying to "restore the roar" at Notre Dame (I'm looking at you, Charlie Weis). How many players of Manning's stature wouldn't have used their media bully pulpit to argue for some hot new kid out of New Orleans or Minnesota? There is a level of professionalism and selflessness in Indianapolis that is somewhat unusual for the career grinder that is the NFL.

Jim Caldwell is at least professional and selfless. Unlike the rest of this rather boisterous class of first-time head coaches, Caldwell hasn't called out any linebackers (Rex Ryan) or talked smack at the opposition before a game (Josh McDaniels), and he doesn't believe in yelling and cursing to get his point across (Todd Haley). He prepares his team and expects them to perform up to the level of their abilities.

He's also as cool as a cucumber on the sideline when games are close and winning is in the balance. That might be the product of having Peyton Manning in the huddle, but let's not forget that Mike Martz had Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk, and Torry Holt in their primes, only to make really stupid decisions with games on the line. Some coaches can't help but sabotage their own teams; I still cringe whenever I recall that perpetually-benighted Marty Morninghweg of the Lions, desperately needing any win, once took the Bears to sudden death overtime, won the toss, and elected to kick the ball away. Stunned at his largess, the Bears walked right down the field and kicked the game-winning field goal while Morninghweg looked for a hole to hide in.

Remarkably, Caldwell has yet to be guilty of making anything like a "fourth-and-dumb-as-hell" call...although he did force one Bill Belichick into just such an error earlier this season in a pivotal game for both franchises. Since Belichick's brain fart, his Patriots have gone a decidedly mortal 2-2 and are now answering questions about Randy Moss' motivation. Meanwhile, Caldwell's Colts are 4-0 and have clinched home-field advantage throughout the playoffs and the only remaining question is whether he cares enough for a perfect season to keep his starters in for what now amount to meaningless games (he doesn't).

This is not to say that Jim Caldwell will begin to give games away. That is not the Colt Way. I would not be surprised at all to see that these Colts are indeed motivated to go undefeated and rest their starters where they can along the way. This is a good team on the cusp of greatness.

Jim Caldwell is a good coach on the cusp of greatness that no one saw coming except the Colts.

Simply amazing.