Brandon Staley's first extended visit to New Orleans was a memorable one. But there were no beads or Jello shots involved.
Staley, the Saints' new defensive coordinator, came to New Orleans in the summer of 2009 for work, not play.
At the time, he was a relatively unknown, 26-year-old assistant coach at the University of St. Thomas, an FCS powerhouse in St. Paul, Minnesota. Then-Saints quarterbacks coach Joe Lombardi, one of Staley's early mentors, invited him down to training camp that fall.
Staley spent the week observing the offensive operation. He watched practices and sat in the back of the quarterbacks meeting room to observe the installation sessions with Drew Brees, Mark Brunell and Joey Harrington and Lombardi, offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael and head coach Sean Payton.
It was Staley's initiation to the NFL and the intricacies of offensive football at the game's highest level. For an ambitious gridiron grasshopper like Staley, the experience was transformative and fueled his ambition to coach in the NFL.
"I was able to learn pro football the way you should learn it," Staley said. "The way that things were done here, there was a different level of detail, specificity, organization, a higher standard for competition. And to see it up close was a very formative experience for me. I was very fortunate."
Staley cut his teeth as a coach on the defensive side of the ball, but he played quarterback in high school and college. Staley's final year of competition was at Mercyhurst University, where Lombardi was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Brees was one of his early role models.
"Drew was the best," Staley said. "And just seeing him operate for five days in training camp from sunrise to sunset, it made me realize that if I want to take my game (to the NFL) someday (as a coach), I'm going to have to be able to defend Drew Brees. And that's a tall task."
The intense daily practice competition between first-year coordinator Gregg Williams' defense and the Brees-Sean Payton offense was also an eye-opener. Staley followed the Saints closely the rest of the year and felt a special connection when they went on to win Super Bowl XLIV.
"I can just remember all the great coaches and great players on that team, on both sides of the ball," Staley said. "You just saw the competition and you knew something was happening. The people that were (there) in training camp knew that that was going to be a special team."
Staley kept his notes from that career-altering week and continued to reference them on his coaching journey, with stops at Hutchinson (Kan.), John Carroll (Ohio), James Madison (Va.) and Chattanooga (Tenn.). He remained close to Lombardi and Carmichael and thought the Saints might eventually lead to his entrée into the NFL as an offensive assistant.
The break eventually came a few years later with the Chicago Bears as an outside linebackers coach. Staley worked his way up the ranks and eventually landed the head coaching job with the Los Angeles Chargers in 2017. One of his first calls was to Lombardi, who he hired to be his offensive coordinator.
But that week in New Orleans stuck with him throughout his ambling journey to the top of his profession.
"It was one of those experiences for me that I'll always look back on," Staley said. "I was able to see that team build something the right way."
Staley faces a major challenge in trying to rebuild the Saints to those lofty standards. The defense he inherits was once a perennial top 10 unit but plummeted to 30th in yards allowed last season.
Staley arrives with a strong reputation as defensive strategist. He fits the profile of Moore's first staff: smart, relatively young, passionate and ambitious. He's excited about coaching longtime Saints defensive stars Cam Jordan, Demario Davis and Tyrann Mathieu and is just as eager to continue the development of young talents such as Bryan Bresee, Alontae Taylor and Kool-Aid McKinstry.
He's also grateful -- for the opportunity to return to the coordinator ranks and to do it in an organization he views as one of the most respected in the league.
That's right: Don't count Staley among the folks who think the Saints aren't a desirable NFL location. He said he's long admired the organization from afar and is bullish about the opportunity to work in a place with such stable management and passionate fans.
"This is a first-class place, and to team up with Kellen again, someone who I really believe in who he is and all the things that he represents, it just seemed like the perfect fit," he said. "There is a special football culture here."
Staley's coaching career didn't start in New Orleans. But it was inspired here.