Saints' Payton opens up in newspaper interview

New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton has said very little publicly since beginning his season-long suspension in April for his part in the bounty scandal.

But in an extensive interview with the New Orleans Times-Picayune's Mike Triplett, Payton noted he has watched the Saints' preseason games and taken notes on the games.

Payton is running the offense for his son's sixth-grade football team in the Dallas area. The Liberty Christian Warriors are 1-0 start after a 30-0 victory on Saturday.

Here are excerpts from the Times-Picayune interview:

• On what the time away has been like: "I think probably a lot of what I expected. I have a chance now from afar to really study the game. Of course, I'm following the Saints real closely with the TV copy and the coaches tape and all those other things. But there are still days where obviously you miss it, because this is what you've done for so long. But really overall, looking from afar, the preseason seems to have gone well. Everyone has really come together.

"There was only one I didn't watch live because we had a football practice, on the Thursday night against Tennessee. But, yeah, whether I'm in Dallas or in New Orleans I'm going to watch games live and then go back and get a copy and watch again. ..."

• On whether he'll be working on television or anything similar in the fall: "No. The challenge is, because of the football schedule of my son's team, I really didn't want to find myself trying to travel around that. We play on Saturdays, practice Tuesdays and Thursdays. I talked with one network about working around that, but ultimately I decided I'd rather not. I don't want to take off on Saturdays an hour after we play. I'd rather spend my time and focus there, and on how the Saints are doing on Sundays. ...

"Absolutely [the best thing about the suspension] is the time it's allowed me to spend with the children. One of the things about what we do, so many times you're missing things, getting pictures of things we miss, phone calls of what you missed."

• On his role on the team on which his son, Connor, plays: "I run the offense. .. We have 12 plays on the wristband. The terminology is the same as we used in New Orleans. The kids said, 'This looks hard.' But I said, 'I've seen your homework. That's a lot harder.' And they've done a great job with it."

• On why he's stayed quiet regarding the bounty allegations and penalties and whether that has been difficult: "Listen, it's hard to do. And we're in a much different position than the players, in regards to players having a union. I think ultimately our goal is to get reinstated at the right time. Yeah, it's frustrating at times to sit back and hear a lot of things that have been painted in a certain way that you know aren't true. But that being said, I support every one of those guys and pay close attention to what's going on with Jon [Vilma] and the rest of those players and Mickey [Loomis] and Joe [Vitt] and everyone."

• On what he feels he did wrong: "When you're the head coach, you've got to pay attention to all areas of your football team. I'm going to leave it just at that. ... There's a lot that went into this, and I think fortunately there's a lot more that's come out after the fact and I think will continue to surface."

• On what the NFL got wrong in its allegations or penalties: "I'd rather not get into it specifically, because we could elaborate for an hour. I think it's better to just leave it at that. There's a lot at stake still for guys like Jon Vilma. They're working hard to get the correct ruling. ... But I think the timing (when the allegations first surfaced in March) and all of a sudden the chain of events and when they happened and when we first were in New York (visiting with league officials), I think that caught myself and all of us off guard for how quickly that all happened."

• On how much he'll be missed with the Saints: "I think the stability aspect of the program is so strong. There's so many players and coaches that are there now that have been involved since '06. I think it'd be much more difficult if this was early in our tenure here. But I've seen where we're the only team with the same ownership, GM, coach and quarterback all have been the same since '06. And all that lends to that stability and allows you to handle challenges."

• On whether he would take it personally if the Saints go 15-1 and win the Super Bowl without him: "No, I'm going to be on the edge of my chair rooting for them every game. This is our team. Not any individual. A group of people have worked very hard together to have success. We've always preached about eliminating the 'I's' and 'mes' and creating a team element to the sport. Coaches, offensive line, defensive line, the whole building. Everyone's got a part in it. Collectively we've been able to have a lot of success, and a lot of people have worked hard to make that happen."

Copyright (C) 2012 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.

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No Payton, no Brees? Hard to say it's no sweat for Saints these days

Thursday May 24, 2012 - 6:24 PM
By Larry Holder | CBSSports.com

Pete Carmichael is watching Chase Daniel (10) instead of Drew Brees running his offense. (US Presswire)

METAIRIE, La. -- It was the third day of the Saints organized team activities on Thursday.

Sean Payton wasn't here.

Neither was Drew Brees.

Instead, offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael conversed with now first-team quarterback Chase Daniel with a play-call sheet and runs through the next offensive formation to run on the outdoor practice fields at the Saints facility in suburban New Orleans.

Not Payton. Not Brees.

Meanwhile, Payton's most newsworthy item occurred way earlier in the day. He attended a local prayer breakfast on Thursday morning for former wide receivers coach Curtis Johnson, who's now Tulane's head coach. Payton spoke to those in attendance saying, "Initially, I made a note here. I'm supposed to say, 'Curtis, we miss you.' "

There was a pause and a bellowing laugh from Johnson and the crowd.

"I mean I miss him, but I'm supposed to be telling him I miss him on Airline Drive [the location of the Saints practice facility]. The receivers ask about you. I can't say any of that," Payton said with a smile and to another chorus of laughter.

And what's the most newsworthy item of the day for Brees other than his lack of contract and absence from the Saints? Arnold Palmer.

Yes, that Arnold Palmer. I received an email on Wednesday that Brees is headlining a faux naming contest by Country Time Lemonade to rename the company's half-lemonade, half-iced tea mix. In other words, Brees is campaigning to rename the drink widely known as the "Arnold Palmer" and change it to a "Drew Brees."

"Summer is about getting ready for football and hanging with friends and family," Brees said in the press release. "Beyond that, everybody loves the feeling of the cool breeze from the ocean. How could you call it anything but the 'Brees?' "

This is the bizarre world that is the New Orleans Saints right now and for the known and unknown future as two of the organization's most important pieces ever are nowhere to be found on the practice field.

Of course, Payton's absence was expected. Expected is one thing. How to handle it once practices commenced was completely different. Acting head coach Joe Vitt said Thursday that he's still trying to sort out how to handle the transition.

New Saints defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo poked fun at Vitt last week when Vitt was asked if he found himself thinking about what Payton would do if he were forced into one of the most bizarre scenarios any team has faced in recent NFL history.

"Every day," Vitt said without hesitation.

Then Spags chimed in without a hitch in his noticeable New England accent as if the two coaches had been coaching together for decades, "We catch him talking to himself a lot."

Vitt nodded in acknowledgement.

You almost wouldn't fault Vitt for walking around the Saints facility mumbling to himself like a lost soul in a padded room. Losing Payton for an entire season thanks to Payton's involvement and/or not stopping and/or lying to the NFL about the bounty scandal may drive someone batty. Losing your Super Bowl-winning leader on the sidelines and in the meeting rooms could be reason enough to drive any NFL assistant coaching lifer like Vitt trying to fill the void into a tailspin. Vitt has been here before, though. He filled in for an extended period for an ill Mike Martz in 2005 while with the Rams and briefly took over for Payton last season after Payton sustained a broken leg on the sideline in Tampa Bay.

So Vitt should settle down, right? You must have forgotten: This is the New Orleans Saints. There's no time to settle down because there has been storyline after storyline resonating from New Orleans and all offseason.

Not having Brees with the rest of his teammates throughout the entire offseason so far is the problem that has a solution and yet appears like there's no end in sight. Brees would be the calming effect a bounty scandal weary team and fan base could hang onto. Instead, Brees and general manager Mickey Loomis are stuck in park with contract negotiations.

Payton and Carmichael had admittedly been tied at the hip since the two arrived in New Orleans in 2006. Carmichael proved he can assume the play-calling and game planning duties last season as Carmichael had more freedom and more say so in the offense than ever. Carmichael can, for the most part, fill Payton's shoes.

Brees' absence matters more to the players than Payton's ban on the field and off it.

No matter how close Brees and Daniel are, and as much as Daniel may try to keep Brees in the loop after practices, no one can fill Brees' shoes. No one in the quarterback meeting room. No one in the organization. No one in the league.

Daniel said he understands his role right now with the Saints is to be a leader in the absence of Brees. But Daniel holds quite loftier goals than that.

"I don't want to step on anybody's feet or Drew's, but Drew knows, 'Hey, I'm coming after you each and every practice and each and every day,'" Daniel told CBSSports.com last week. "We're two of the most competitive people against each other. It will be a little bit weird and sort of an eerie feeling without him being on the field with us, but I've been here long enough and the guys trust me. ... [My role] is to try to get myself ready [for the season] as much as possible, however long this carries on and even when this ends and Drew is back. And when Drew gets back for OTAs, I'm still going to be competing with him for a starting job. That's what I've always taken into camp."

Delusion has at least faded for Daniel after his third OTA session.

"I'd say I'm No. 1B right now," Daniel said after Thursday's session. "Drew, I obviously know what my role is on this team. And right now it's to prepare like the starter and to take the No. 1 snaps. This is Drew's team. I'm just here to fill in and get ready and prepare like the starter, you know, like I have from 2009, when I started here."

Several teammates have said throughout the offseason that Brees is in such a rare situation where he holds almost the ultimate leverage in contract negotiations and that he has to take advantage of that. Considering that Brees is the only player on Payton's original roster in 2006 who played the entire life of his contract to this point without receiving an extension: Marques Colston (two new contracts -- 2008, 2012), Roman Harper (2011), Will Smith (2008), Jahri Evans (2010), Lance Moore (2011), Devery Henderson (2009) and Zach Strief (2011). And Payton has received two contract extensions through that time span.

"Drew Brees is a once in a lifetime kind of player. ... This time last year, Drew was paying for me to be in New Orleans (during player workouts at Tulane), be in a hotel, be with the team. ... To come this year and have him not be here is obviously tremendously difficult." fullback Jed Collins said.

Moore added: "The guy deserves whatever he wants."

You can insert just about any Saints players' name into the quotes above. It's a major bummer without Brees, but it's business.

Then there's the storyline that isn't.

The new Spagnuolo defense would have easily been the most pressing drama for the Saints this offseason had it not been for bounties and Brees contract troubles.

"It's funny," Spagnuolo told CBSSports.com on Thursday. "I'm so enthralled on what we're doing on defense that I haven't thought about it that much, but that's not to say I don't think about it. ... When I think of all of the reasons I chose to come here, those two [Payton and Brees] are the highest. And there not here right now, but things happen. Once I signed on, I was part of an organization and part of a team and you deal with the ebb and flow and you handle the adversity. I'm very hopeful that Drew will be back here. I know at some point Sean will be back here."

Then I pointed out that no Payton and Brees is more than simply ebb and flow.

"I know," Spagnuolo said laughing. "Which one is ebb and which one is flow. But that's OK. It's part of the league. It's been a different kind of offseason, but it's been exciting all the way through.

"Never a dull moment."

Dull is what the Saints could use at this point.

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Payton, Petrino needed bosses who could save them from themselves

AD Jeff Long (left) could have saved Bobby Petrino from himself. (Getty Images)

Bobby Petrino and Sean Payton might not seem like they have a lot in common, but something ties them together, and it should serve as a lesson to every big-time coach in sports, especially college and professional football.

Petrino and Payton's common thread? Neither had a boss.

Oh, on paper, they had superiors, but in reality, they had none. They were CEOs of their teams. The people above them were either sycophants or incompetent. There was no board with strict oversight. No one with the power to say: Wait, hold on, you're doing what?

No one to say: Nah dude, we don't do bounties, here. If you don't cut that s--- out, I'm firing you.

Or: Hold on, Bobby ... why exactly are we bypassing university rules and overlooking more qualified applicants to speed up the hiring of a ... very ... pretty ... young lady? Hey, wait a minute, tell me more about this Jessica Dorrell? In fact, tell me everything.

There was no one with the true power to say no because the power of Petrino and Payton had grown larger than the power of their alleged bosses.

A general manager on an NFL team or an athletic director at a college is supposed to act like an airbrake when coaches suddenly start doing impossibly stupid things. The problem in both of these cases was the inaction or even enabling of the bosses, specifically Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long and Saints general manager Mickey Loomis.

Various NFL sources say Payton has effectively been the top man at the Saints for several years and his power was cemented (and grew considerably) after New Orleans won the Super Bowl. Payton and Drew Brees were portrayed as men who saved the city. It was around this time that the bounty scandal was in full swing.

For the most part, Loomis was a wimp who basically did whatever Payton wanted. There's a reason Payton received a full-year suspension and Loomis far less. Payton was the ringleader and Loomis the stooge, the bad lieutenant who followed Payton's instructions.

What was really needed was an intervention, but there was no one powerful enough to take on Payton. Payton was the power.

Where was owner Tom Benson in all of this? Who knows? I covered the late Wellington Mara, who was intricately involved in every decision of the team he owned, the Giants. I have no frame of reference for a Benson. I covered the late George Young, the longtime Giants general manager, and Ernie Accorsi, who followed Young. They were vastly different from the Longs and Loomises. They were men of intellect and action who weren't perfect but understood that bosses have to act like bosses.

What Long did, in many ways, is an even larger disgrace than Loomis. Petrino pushed Long to bypass school affirmative action rules requiring a 30-day period for jobs to be posted before interviews could commence so Petrino could quickly usher in his girlfriend. Long may not have known the two had a previous relationship, but he should have smelled something was rotten. Instead, his response to Petrino was yes sir. Whatever you want sir. Cream with that coffee, Mr. Petrino?

Petrino pushed for the interview process to begin just five days into the waiting period, according to a story in Sports Illustrated. "We feel that flexibility is needed," Long wrote at the time.

Petrino is flexible, all right.

Dr. Fritz Polite, sports management professor at Tennessee and director of the Institute for Leadership, Ethics & Diversity, told SI that Arkansas' speed in ignoring affirmative action procedures demonstrated "the power lies with the coach to sidestep rules ... simply because he's winning."

Petrino's success allowed him to hop over Long, and in the process Long became impotent. It's an old story that hasn't changed in decades in college football, and the lessons have not been learned from the numerous scandals in which a coach made himself king. University presidents are clueless (maybe purposely so) and athletic directors compliant and sometimes worse, fearing reprisal from a coach who has more power than anyone on campus.

Those in power above the coach self-castrate knowing the coach is the true ruler of the empire.

The same thing happened with the Saints.

What Long and Loomis should have done was cut the pretense and, whenever they saw Payton and Petrino, make a simple gesture.

They should have saluted.

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What Payton wants is obvious, but why would Saints want it, too?

Sean Payton (right) passed over esteemed OC Pete Carmichael (left) for the interim job. (US Presswire)

Sean Payton, smartest guy in every room he has ever walked into, thought he could do what he did and not get busted. Can you believe that? He thought he could get away with it.

I'm not talking about the bounty system his team used to target and then savage opposing players. I'm talking about the stuff that came afterward. The interim coach who was picked to replace Payton. I'm talking about that.

Once an arrogant SOB, always an arrogant SOB. That's Sean Payton, and then some. Arrogant, smarter-than-thou, the whole thing. He's a piece of work, this guy, because what he has done -- what he thought he could do, and get away with it -- is sacrifice New Orleans' 2012 season to serve the greater good.

The greater good being the star power of Sean Payton.

Look at the convoluted road the Saints traveled to pick a replacement for Payton, a process that Payton was allowed to oversee because, well, I'm not sure how to finish that thought. Because I'm not sure why Sean Payton, who has been such a wonderful Saints employee that he got himself suspended for a full season, was allowed to handpick the guy who would replace him.

All I know is Sean Payton handpicked some of the most obviously non-threatening guys he could. And I know why: Because Sean Payton is all about Sean Payton. Even as he has overseen three years of outrageous behavior that gutted the Saints -- cost them their head coach for 16 games, another coach for six games, their general manager for eight games, plus draft picks and fines -- Sean Payton made the call to replace Sean Payton with men who would do the job fairly well.

But not too well.

Because if someone did the job too well, um, that could cause a problem in 2013 when it's time for Sean Payton to return as head coach. Who needs or even wants Payton, that bounty-ignoring monster, if the Saints just went 13-3 without him?

So the first guy Payton tried to hire was his buddy Bill Parcells, who hasn't been good in years and who would have taken the job with a clear expiration date. Parcells turns 71 soon, and he wouldn't have been a threat to stay as head coach even if he'd turned back the clock to 1990 and gone 13-3. For one season Parcells would have replaced Payton as a favor to Payton, and then Parcells would have gotten the heck out of there.

Parcells was the perfect hire for Payton, but it didn't work out. Michael Lombardi at NFL.com posited the theory that it didn't work out because another member of the Saints' suspended posse, general manager Mickey Loomis, didn't want Parcells because Parcells -- while not a threat to Payton -- would have represented a threat to Mickey Loomis. Is that one true? No idea. Interesting theory, but I have no idea if Mickey Loomis operates in all-about-me mode.

Sean Payton? He lives in all-about-me mode, right down to the way he appeared at a Final Four concert next to Jimmy Buffett, who wore a T-shirt that said "Free Sean Payton." After Parcells said no, Payton turned to Joe Vitt. You know, the guy who can't even coach the first six games because he's suspended for the same reason as Payton. An interim coach gets no less threatening than one who can't even coach the whole season. Whatever happens in 2012, however good the season could theoretically go for the Saints, Vitt's impact will be marginalized by his six-game suspension.

But my suspicion is the Saints' 2012 season won't go that well at all, which I suspect would suit Sean Payton just fine. He wants to return in April 2013 as a martyr and a white knight, riding in from the wilderness to save the day. He can't save the day if the Saints go 13-3 in 2012, but he can sure save it if they're 8-8 or something similar.

And really, what else are the Saints going to do -- even with all that talent -- given the rudderless way they'll lurch through the 2012 season? One coach for six games, Joe Vitt for the next 10. Keep in mind, Joe Vitt is not head-coach material. That's an important fact here, because the Saints have another guy on staff who absolutely is head-coach material. But Sean Payton didn't turn to that guy as the interim coach. Didn't even consider him, from what I can gather.

Pete Carmichael is his name. He's the Saints offensive coordinator, X-and-O whiz kid, only 40 years old, close with quarterback Drew Brees. He's the next Sean Payton, is what he is, and he's so highly regarded around the league that he has been summoned by the Raiders and Colts to interview for head-coaching positions. But for his own franchise, sorry: You may be good, Pete Carmichael -- but you're no Joe Vitt.

See, Payton can't afford to have the Saints got 13-3 next season under Carmichael. That happens, and other teams would line up to hire Carmichael, and what then? You'd have Saints fans wondering if maybe the Saints should cut loose the tainted Sean Payton -- what's he done for us lately, anyway? -- and keep Pete Carmichael.

Payton can't have that. So he's not promoting Carmichael, which as an added bonus increases the odds that Carmichael returns in 2013 as the Saints offensive coordinator. It's diabolical micro-management, what I'm suggesting, but anyone who knows anything about Sean Payton knows he is capable of being that diabolical, and that micro-managing.

What I can't understand is why the Saints are letting him do it.

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Report: Sean Payton banned from 'any contact' with Saints, other coaches

Posted: 10:23 AM ET April 17, 2012

By Will Brinson | Senior NFL Blogger

Payton's banned from contact with anyone on the Saints in 2012. (Getty Images)
Sean Payton got a hefty one-year suspension from the NFL and when he appealed that suspension to Roger Goodell, he got the Heisman from the commissioner. So we knew 2012 wouldn't be a fun year for Payton.

But according to a report from Adam Schefter of ESPN, it's worse than imagined: Payton is "not allowed to have any contact with the Saints organization or anyone around the NFL."

Additionally, any contact with coaching friends or members of the Saints organization must be reported to league executive Ray Anderson, which is an interesting little application of the honor code when it comes to Payton's suspension.

Payton's suspension begins Monday and ends in February, following the Super Bowl. So, if Payton does, say, bump into Mickey Loomis at Bed, Bath and Beyond on a Saturday in May, he has to ring up Anderson and self-report a violation of his suspension.

The obvious conundrum for Payton is this: he could break the honor code and keep his fingerprints on the 2012 Saints. And he could conceivably get away with it. But (in the hypothetical that he attempted to do so) if he got caught without self-reporting these violations, he might be in big trouble when reinstatement time rolls around.

Of course, from a practical standpoint, it's an absolute disaster: the people in the Saints organization and the NFL are, one assumes, his circle of friends. Surely he has compatriots outside the game, but if he wants to get dinner with a good friend in the Saints organization, it's unlikely the NFL would look on too kindly.

Tags: Bounties, Bountygate, New Orleans Saints, NFL

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