Miami » From the time he was a toddler watching his father direct Weber State's defense, Adam Zimmer never imagined doing anything other than coaching football.
And now, 14 years after standing on the Dallas Cowboys' sideline and holding his father's headset cords during the Super Bowl, Zimmer will help coach the New Orleans Saints in Sunday's Super Bowl XLIV against Indianapolis.
None of this is quite like he pictured it, however.
Adam Zimmer describes this season as "a surreal experience," for reasons that go beyond the Saints' first Super Bowl appearance in their 43-year history. Mike Zimmer will be in Sun Life Stadium watching his son work, while they continue to mourn the loss of their wife and mother.
In October, Vikki Zimmer died suddenly at age 50 in Cincinnati, where Mike Zimmer is the Bengals' defensive coordinator.
Two teams rallied around the family; Saints players traveled to Cincinnati on their owner's plane for the funeral, and Adam was awarded a game ball after a victory over the New York Giants.
"It was hard," he said, "but being able to work really helped keep my mind off things."
Zimmer, 26, is a defensive assistant helping with the Saints' linebackers. Having spent the first five years of his childhood in Ogden, where his father was on the Weber State staff for coach Mike Price's entire eight-season tenure, Zimmer said, "I was around football all my life. There wasn't anything I wanted to do except be a coach."
His break came when Sean Payton, who had worked with Zimmer's father in Dallas, became the Saints' coach and hired Zimmer, a graduate of Trinity University in Texas.
Mike Zimmer attended the NFC championship game in New Orleans and did not enjoy the experience of being in the stands at an NFL game for the first time, but he's still coming to the Super Bowl. "He'll only do it for me," Adam Zimmer said.
