Dan Campbell was thrown into the fire when he got his first head-coaching gig three years ago.

He did a fine job — going 5-7 as the Miami Dolphins’ interim coach before they decided to hire Adam Gase in the offseason. But Campbell, who was the youngest coach in the NFL at the time, at 39, also knew he needed more seasoning.

So what better than three years of graduate school under Sean Payton as the New Orleans Saints’ assistant head coach and tight ends coach?nike nfl jerseys cheap china

Not only is Payton one of the game’s best head coaches, but he was also a mentor of Campbell’s throughout much of his 10-year playing career as a tight end with the Giants, Cowboys, Lions and Saints.

“It’s been extremely helpful,” said Campbell, who figures to be a popular head-coaching candidate this cycle at age 42 now that the Saints have re-emerged as one the NFL’s hottest teams over the past two seasons.

Campbell already got an interview with the Indianapolis Colts last year.

“You don’t know exactly what you’re looking for [as a head coach] until you get thrust into that role like I did at Miami. Well, once that doesn’t work out, I have a chance to come and learn under Sean, and now you know what you’re looking for, and now you know the questions to ask,” Campbell said. “So to be able to watch and learn under Sean and see how he deals with situations, see how he deals with management of a game, how he deals with personnel, how he deals with scheme. Just dealing with people, scheduling — everything.

In coming to New Orleans, Campbell basically ripped a page out of Payton’s playbook.

Probably the best thing Payton did as a young, up-and-coming coach was to land a job on Bill Parcells’ staff with the Dallas Cowboys in the early 2000s.cheap nfl nike jerseys from china

For three years in Dallas, Payton not only ran the Cowboys’ offense, but he took notes on everything he could absorb about how to be a head coach. From scheduling to personnel decisions to quotes that still hang in the Saints’ locker room to this day.

Parcells is still one of Payton’s closest friends and most cherished mentors.

And, oh by the way, it won’t hurt Campbell that he comes from that same coaching tree. Campbell played on those Cowboys teams under Parcells and Payton from 2003-05. He later got his start as a coaching assistant under another Parcells protégé, Tony Sparano, with the Dolphins in 2010.

Kareem Hunt apologized to the world, the Kansas City Chiefs organization, his family and his close friends before he finally got around to apologizing to the young woman he shoved and kicked in February — more than seven minutes into Sunday’s interview with ESPN’s Lisa Salters. But just as telling about the assault that ultimately cost Hunt his job was his confirmation that the league had never interviewed him about it.china nike nfl jerseys cheap

Hunt talked to the Chiefs after the assault outside his Cleveland hotel residence, and the Chiefs then talked to the league, and then Hunt was free to play 11 games and to help his team emerge as a Super Bowl contender. NFL officials accepted a version of events first supplied by a star running back invested in protecting his career, and then passed along by a team invested in keeping said difference-maker on the field, as part of yet another investigation and decision exposed as disturbing, revealing and woefully inadequate by a video aired on TMZ.

“It should surprise me, but it doesn’t,” said Kathy Redmond, who founded the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes more than 20 years ago. “These are non-investigations. It goes back to willful ignorance, and arrogance and hubris on the part of the NFL. It feels like everything the NFL does is on the surface, and to address PR and the brand they have to protect.”

Yes, the NFL says it did try (and fail) to obtain the video from Cleveland police and the hotel, and did try (and fail) to interview the victim it described in a Sunday statement as a “complainant.” That statement said the league’s “ongoing” investigation will include more attempts to interview “the complainants involved in the incident. It will include a review of the new information that was made public on Friday — which was not available to the NFL previously — as well as further conversations with all parties involved in the incident.”

“Our investigation identified a number of investigative steps that the League did not take to acquire additional information about what occurred inside the elevator. League investigators did not contact any of the police officers who investigated the incident, the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office, or the Revel to attempt to obtain or view the in-elevator video or to obtain other information. No one from the League asked Rice or his lawyer whether they would make available for viewing the in-elevator video they received as part of criminal discovery in early April. And, after the initial contacts with the Ravens in the immediate aftermath of the incident, League investigators did not follow up with the Ravens to determine whether the team had additional information.”cheap nfl nike jerseys from china

That report was dated Jan. 8, 2015. Nearly four years later, with Mueller a bit tied up at the moment, it sure would be interesting to see what an independent review of the Hunt “investigation” would turn up.

Understand this: By making multiple attempts to speak with witnesses and to secure the video from hotel officials and law enforcement — even after Cleveland police decided they wouldn’t file charges against Hunt — the league believes it has been more aggressive in the Hunt case than it was in the Rice case, a low standard indeed. An NFL spokesman declined comment when emailed this question: “Why didn’t the league interview Kareem Hunt after the alleged assault?” A person with knowledge of the case said investigators always prefer to speak with the victim of an alleged crime before they speak with the alleged perpetrator, and that the woman’s refusal to respond to the league’s requests for an interview scuttled the plan to interview Hunt.