Some things in life are predestined.
Jim Haslett was the son of a coach and knew he would go into coaching as soon as his NFL playing career ended. So it was no surprise to Jim and wife, Beth, when their only son chose the same career path after his collegiate playing days ended.
Chase Haslett was recently named the tight ends coach on Kellen Moore’s new Saints staff, making it a full-circle moment for the Haslett family. A little more than 25 years ago, Jim was named the ninth head coach in Saints history and eventually led the club to its first playoff win.
Now, instead of pacing the Superdome sidelines under the pressure and stress as the Saints head coach, Jim looks forward to visiting New Orleans as a proud parent and fan, while watching the third generation of coaching Hasletts try to win games as a Saints assistant.
“He’s definitely excited and geared up for it,” the elder Haslett said by phone from his home in Pittsburgh on Wednesday. “He’s a heckuva coach. He gets along with players really well, and he’s advanced really quickly in a short period of time.”
Added Beth: “He’s like his father, just totally into it. He’s a go-getter.”
Beth joked that the last thing she wanted was another coach in the family. After decades of living the transient life of a coach’s wife, she was hoping Chase would choose a more stable — and perhaps, sane — profession. The couple’s daughters, Kelsey and Elizabeth, are executives with DraftKings and Blue Cross Blue Shield, respectively.
But Chase’s career path was largely single-tracked. From his youth days in New Orleans, where he spent afternoons by his father’s side at Saints practices, to his nights playing video games with Saints star receiver Joe Horn, he seemed fated for a football life.
“It’s all I’ve ever been around,” Chase said Monday during a meet-and-greet session for Saints coaches with local reporters. “Seeing how my dad could impact players throughout the course of his career, that’s touched me to the point where I want continue to do that. I didn’t get into coaching for myself; I do it for others. That’s truly why I’m here.”
Beth recalls being at a Saints game in the Superdome with other Saints coaches’ wives in the early 2000s, when one of them asked Chase what happened on a particular play.
“He rattled off exactly what happened in all of this detail,” Beth said. “Theresa Palcic (the wife of Saints’ tight ends coach Bob) said, ‘Oh, my God. He’s got the gene.’”
After a playing career as a quarterback at Illinois and Indiana University of Pennsylvania (his father’s alma mater), Chase dove right into coaching.
Mike Riley, the former head coach of the San Diego Chargers and an assistant on Haslett’s Saints staffs, gave him his start at the University of Nebraska. From there, he climbed the ladder, from Mississippi State to Mercer to his first NFL job as a quality control coach on Mike McCarthy’s Dallas Cowboys staff — where the offensive coordinator was none other than Moore.
Chase served in a variety of roles on the Cowboys offensive staff and had an offer to stay in Dallas this year but bypassed it for a chance to join Moore in New Orleans.
In his first full-time role as a position coach, he will mentor a talented and veteran room led by Taysom Hill, Juwan Johnson and Foster Moreau.
"Phenomenal coach, phenomenal person, love his energy," Moore said of the younger Haslett. "He comes from a great football family. He’s a really special coach, so we were fired up to get a chance to get him and put him in position in the tight end room.”
By all accounts, Chase is not as intense or fiery as his father, who famously would turn red-faced and toss his headset from time to time on the sidelines during Saints games. In one way, though, Jim said Chase has passed on the Haslett gene to his two children.
"They're all Haslett," said the elder Haslett, who last served as the head coach of the Seattle Sea Dragons of the XFL in 2023. "The first thing they do each day is grab a football or a baseball or a golf club."
Understandably, many of Chase's memories from his time in New Orleans have been fogged by time. He was only 7 when his father was named head coach in January 2000. He and sisters attended St. Martin’s School just down the block from the Saints facility on Airline Drive. He was bound for Rummel High School when Jim and the Saints parted ways after the grim Katrina season of 2005.
But those early years were formative ones, and he’s maintained a connection to the city ever since. His cell phone still carries a 504 area code, and his Twitter homepage displays a photo of him and his sisters in Ricky Williams Saints jerseys during Jim’s head coaching days in New Orleans. He's returned for the weddings of friends over the years and recently had dinner with one of his childhood buddies from the area.
“It’s a great opportunity,” said Haslett, 32. “Kellen is a great coach, and it’s a great organization. I definitely want to win another Super Bowl here. That’s the goal.”
Chase said a flood of memories flashed through his head when he arrived at the Saints facility last week to sign his contract and go through orientation. Watching practices on the outdoor fields. Running sprints with his father after workouts. Climbing the stairs to the second-floor coaches’ offices, where he used to visit his father in the big office on the left.
Now, serendipitously, perhaps, he works down the hall in his own office on the right.
"Kinda like déjà vu," he said. "It's pretty cool. It’s definitely surreal."
Some would call it destiny.