Payton and Brees

by Jeff Duncan

  “He was a target at No. 11,” Payton said. “The only thing that happened that we weren’t expecting, although you kind of aren’t surprised anytime when you’re selecting that early, when it got down to [Marshon] Lattimore, you keep this bubble right on the board in front of you, and you’re on pick 8 and you might have four in this bubble, and then one goes and another goes. Here it was—pick 10—and we have two players in the bubble, Lattimore and Mahomes.”

  Payton knew taking Mahomes would be a potentially franchise-altering decision. And with his franchise quarterback sitting in the room, he knew he couldn’t blindside Brees by selecting his potential replacement. So he met with him outside the war room and gave him a heads-up of the situation.

  “Drew was great,” Payton said. “It didn’t faze him a bit. He always thinks of the team first.”

  Brees had been in this spot before. In 2004, just three years after taking Brees in the second round of the 2001 draft, the San Diego Chargers used their first-round pick, the No. 4 overall selection in the 2004 draft, to select Philip Rivers.

  Then-Chargers offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer remembered running into Brees in the weight room on the eve of the draft that year and informing him of the Chargers’ plans to select a quarterback.

  “We were chatting and he’s like, ‘Hey, who are we gonna draft?’” Schottenheimer told Sports Illustrated in 2019. “I said, ‘Hey, bro, listen, you need to prepare yourself, we’re probably taking a quarterback.’…It went from a real fun, jovial conversation [to] his eyes kind of just locked in. And he looked at me and said, ‘That would be the worst f——ing mistake this organization could ever make.’ And I’m like, ‘Hey, man, don’t shoot the messenger.’ He goes, ‘Worst mistake ever.’ And he walked off.”

  Two years later, the Chargers went all-in with Rivers and allowed Brees to walk in free agency. Now the scenario was potentially playing out again, this time in New Orleans, 11 years later.

  “I understood,” Brees said. “I knew our guys loved Lattimore but didn’t think he would be there. So, man, if Mahomes is there at 11 it would be hard not to take him, talent-wise. Hey, a really talented player, a guy that could be your guy in the future.”

  Alas, fate intervened.

  The Kansas City Chiefs, fully aware of the Saints’ interest in Mahomes, traded a package of three draft picks to the Bills for the right to move up from No. 27 to No. 10 and snag Mahomes. At No. 11, the Saints happily pounced on Lattimore, who would go on to win the 2017 Defensive Rookie of the Year award and earn a Pro Bowl invitation as a rookie.

  Mahomes, meanwhile, assumed the starting spot in Kansas City in 2018 and quickly developed into one of the elite players in the league. He won the Most Valuable Player Award in 2018 after passing for 5,097 yards and a league-high 50 touchdowns. A year later, he led the Chiefs to their second Super Bowl championship in franchise history. Along the way, he has drawn comparisons to Hall of Famers Brett Favre and Steve Young.

  If the Bills had stayed put and selected another player other than Lattimore and Mahomes, Payton said the Saints would have picked Lattimore.

  “I don’t know if we would have changed because Lattimore’s grade was so good,” he said. “The challenge is, Lattimore helps your team immediately with Brees. The other player [Mahomes] is a potential franchise quarterback that helps your team long-term. We deal with that [question] a lot.”

  If the Bills had stayed put and selected Lattimore instead of trading with the Chiefs, Payton said the plan was definitely to take Mahomes, barring some over-the-top offer from a rival team. And taking Mahomes likely would have changed everything for the Saints.

  A slew of questions would have presented themselves over the ensuing years.

  Would the Saints have seen the same eye-popping potential in Mahomes that the Chiefs did during practices in 2017?

  If so, would they have signed Brees to the two-year, $50 million contract they gave him in 2018?

  Or would they have wanted to start earning a return on their investment in Mahomes?

  And given his past, would Brees have even wanted to play in New Orleans in that situation?

  Would the Saints have gone 11–5 and won the NFC South without Lattimore locking down opposing receivers last season?

  If not, would Brees have been more willing to consider other options?

  Would Brees have moved on and—gasp—broken the NFL career passing yardage and touchdown records somewhere other than New Orleans?

  Thanks to the Chiefs’ daring draft-day deal, Payton and the Saints never had to answer those questions. But it’s fascinating to think about the players who finished first and second in voting for the 2018 NFL MVP Award sharing the same quarterback room. And it’s scary to think what Mahomes could have done in the Saints’ high-flying offense with Payton calling the plays.

  “He was a fantastic prospect,” Payton said of Mahomes. “We saw a lot of traits that we saw with Brett [Favre]. He was such a likable player. You watched him on film, and you saw a high ceiling.

  “But it all worked out. I think Kansas City and Andy [Reid] and those guys got a heck of a player. It all worked out real good.”

  When a reporter asked Brees in 2018 if he would have been okay with the selection of Mahomes, he was completely unruffled by the prospect. “Yeah,” he said, while shrugging his shoulders, “as long as he’s okay to sit for a few years.”

  24. In NOLA to Stay

  There was a time not long ago when folks around the New Orleans Saints training facility thought Bill Parcells haunted the building.

  Bill this.

  Bill that.

  This is how Bill does it in Dallas.

  Sean Payton seemingly couldn’t make a decision without referencing his mentor. The initial approach was understandable. Payton arrived in New Orleans fresh off, as he would call it, a three-year graduate term in the Big Tuna School of Coaching. Learning at the side of one of the most accomplished and respected coaches in NFL history left an indelible impression on Payton, both as a man and coach. When he left Dallas for New Orleans, he was a walking encyclopedia of Parcells-isms.

  Over time, though, Payton has gradually emerged from Parcells’ shadow. Entering his 15th season in New Orleans, Payton has grown comfortable and confident in his own coaching skin. He has learned that not everything Parcells said or did is the gospel, similar to how a son one day learns that his father doesn’t hold the monopoly on worldly wisdom. Payton still talks to Parcells frequently and considers him his mentor. He always will. But he’s no longer Parcells’ acolyte. He’s become his own coach. In fact, his .630 winning percentage (131–77) is well ahead of Parcells’ career mark of .569 (172–130–1).

  “We’re different in some ways, and that’s okay,” Payton said of Parcells. “I’m very clear, I’m very happy and focused and excited about what’s to come, with no script.”

  Loomis has played a key role in Payton’s evolution. Under his patient guidance, he has allowed Payton to stretch his wings, to maintain his coaching persona while learning from mistakes along the way.

  Payton has matured and evolved. He is inarguably a better coach now than he was five years ago. He’s certainly more malleable and open-minded, two qualities for which Parcells was never known. While Parcells’ irascible style might be perfectly suited for franchise overhaul, it doesn’t have a long shelf life. Consequently, he tended to bounce from job to job. And his final two tenures in Dallas and Miami weren’t exactly success stories.

  Payton arrived in New Orleans with the same scorched-earth attitude. In the beginning, it was necessary. The challenge of overhauling the football operation and transforming the culture of the Saints organization required a no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners approach. Payton’s obsessive drive spurred the Saints to a Super Bowl title in 2009 and an unprecedented run of success. But along the way, he developed a reputation as a rebel, someone who
could be difficult to deal with professionally.

  Ornstein recalled a meeting with an NFL Network executive at the 2018 Pro Bowl that opened Payton’s eyes when he and the Saints staff coached the NFC team in Orlando, Florida.

  “She told Sean, ‘I’m going to go back and tell everybody what a good guy you really are,’” Ornstein said. “Sean said, ‘What do you mean?’ And she said, ‘Well, everybody at NFL Films thinks you’re an asshole.’ And he said, ‘What are you talking about? Really?’ And after she left, I told him, ‘Sean, I told you this. You have treated people so poorly over the years. You were an asshole. You need to change.’”

  A classic story from 2011 illustrates the old Payton. That year, Payton coached a handful of games from the coaches’ booth while mending the broken leg he suffered from a sideline incident against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. During the broadcast of the Saints’ 62–7 rout of the Colts, NBC Sports cameras accidentally caught Payton eating a hot dog at halftime. Payton was unhappy about the perception it gave fans and colleagues, especially since he had to be cajoled into allowing NBC to post the camera in the booth in the first place.

  First, Payton got mad. He delivered a tongue-lashing to NBC executives. Then he got even. When NBC’s Sunday Night Football crew arrived in town a few weeks later to set up for the broadcast of the Saints’ home game against the Detroit Lions, a Lucky Dog stand and vendor greeted them at the airport. Another was strategically posted next to the NBC production truck outside the Superdome on game day. Everyone had a big laugh. Ambush II was a rousing success.

  Early in his Saints tenure, Payton might have stewed about the perceived slight for a full season. In 2011, he had mellowed to the point of using humor to send his message. Today, a more mature Payton probably wouldn’t even waste time with the situation.

  “Doing this long enough, you learn to focus on the things you can control,” Payton said. “It took a while. It certainly wasn’t a strength of mine in ’06, ’07, or ’08. Over time, you begin to really focus your energy, your battery life, for instance. And that’s come from experience.”

  During a press briefing with reporters before the Saints’ wild-card playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings in January 2020, Payton reflected on this evolution. He joked about the wasted energy he spent obsessing over trivial details like the size of the Christmas tree in the team cafeteria.

  “Sometimes I can be a little bit obsessive that way,” Payton said. “I guarantee you in ’09 I spent wasted time on stuff like that. You just begin to understand, hey, there are certain things that you are not going to be able to control.

  “But I think the small things are important things and all of it. As soon as those begin to erode, I think then that’s not good. I don’t know that that’s wasting time. But there are certain things, though.”

  Payton still has his moments. He blew up on Saints executives behind closed doors about the amenities—or lack thereof—at the team hotel in suburban Minneapolis during the 2018 season. But he’s learned to pick his battles rather than jousting at every windmill he encounters.

  Unlike early in his tenure, he rarely spars with media members. He buried the hatchet with many reporters he once blackballed because of various perceived transgressions. He even sends members of the local media corps a holiday pack of Jeni’s ice cream each Christmas.

  And to the surprise of everyone, he mended fences with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and worked closely with him to implement a new replay rule on pass interference during the 2019 NFL owners meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. The two had experienced a rocky relationship for years and were essentially on non-speaking terms after Goodell suspended Payton for his role in the Bountygate scandal. Today, Payton is an active and involved member on the league’s competition committee.

  Even his mentor, Parcells, has noticed a maturation in Payton, both on and off the field.

  “Sean has grown as a coach because he’s experienced so much over the years,” Parcells said. “He’s gone through a couple of cycles of players in New Orleans now, and until a coach has been through a couple of those cycles you haven’t really been through the whole gamut. Only experience...only trial and error—owning and being accountable for your mistakes—will allow you to grow and improve. Sean has done that in New Orleans. I’m very proud of what he’s accomplished, because it’s not easy.”

  Many NFL officials and observers thought Payton would follow his mentor’s lead and bolt for a job in a big market as soon as Brees’ tenure with the Saints ended. A year seemingly didn’t go by that he wasn’t rumored to be headed to Dallas to coach for his longtime friend and former boss, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

  In the fall of 2019, he attempted to quell the speculation once and for all. He signed a five-year contract extension that paid him approximately $15 million a year, a deal that made him the second- highest-paid coach in the league behind Belichick. It also sent a message to the rest of the NFL.

  “This is home,” Payton said. “I have a house here. I’m here full-time. Every year, we do more.”

  In 2018 and 2019, Payton oversaw the renovations of the Saints training facility, including a state-of-the-art locker room, training room, and $3 million squad room replete with a $600,000 video board. He was intimately involved in plans for a new dining hall adjacent to the team’s indoor practice facility.

  “The level that he is doing things right now is totally off the charts,” Zach Strief said. “It’s everything. He cares about and is involved in every detail of the facility.”

  Case in point: the cold trailer the Saints use to regulate core body temperatures during training camp. The climate-controlled long trailer is a lifesaver during camp. Parked in the end zone of the team’s practice fields, it allows 20 or so players at a time to cool off in the 32-degree chill and escape the unrelenting triple-digit heat indices of the Louisiana summer. Payton updated the plain, non-descript trailer they used in Year One. The new model was custom-painted in Saints black and gold colors and furnished with benches and windows. He had inspirational messages painted on the inside in gold lettering.

  “That’s Sean,” Strief said. “He doesn’t just want a cold trailer that looks like a shipping container. He wants something the players can be proud of, something first-class. And he’s like that across the board. It’s the food. It’s the weight room equipment. It’s the new technology. He’s relentless in his detail for every aspect of that building. And I think that’s really coincided with this kind of refocusing on the job. But he’s even more effective now, because there’s less big-ticket items that he has to worry about. The culture is there. It’s embedded.”

  Off the field, Payton put down roots, as well. In November 2019, he became engaged to longtime girlfriend Skylene Montgomery and the couple moved into a new house, a classic antebellum home in the heart of New Orleans’ Uptown neighborhood. They regularly go for walks to nearby Audubon Park and take bike rides around the neighborhood.

  “He’s come to love New Orleans,” Loomis said. “And I think it means something that he’s done it for as long as has in one place, like a Tom Landry or a Don Shula. There’s a little pride in that.”

  Only three years ago, Payton had wandering eyes. He seriously flirted with leaving. Now says he says he doesn’t want to coach anywhere else and plans to end his coaching career in New Orleans.

  “I’ve got fleur-de-lis tattoos that can’t be erased!” Payton cracked in a 2019 interview with WWL-AM radio in New Orleans.

  At some point, he knows the run will end. But for now, he’s happy and committed to trying to win another Super Bowl for the city he’s called home for the past decade and a half.

  25. 40 Is the New 30

  Drew Brees turned 41 on January 15, 2020. One month and three days later, he announced his plans to return for the 2020 season, which would be his 20th in the NFL. In eschewing a potential eight-figure annual salary to work as a network televisi
on analyst, Brees joined an exclusive fraternity. Earl Morrall (21 seasons), Vinny Testaverde (21), Tom Brady (21), and Brett Favre (20) are the only NFL quarterbacks to play the position for two decades.

  But Brees’ decision to return did not come without serious contemplation. Once Brees reached his mid-thirties, he said he began taking his career year to year. But this was the first time he seriously considered retirement. Just a year earlier he was convinced he would play into his mid-forties. But things changed during the 2019 season. He suffered the first serious injury of his Saints career in a Week 3 loss to the Rams in Los Angeles. TV network executives began courting his services. And his family and business obligations grew larger than ever.

  During his exit interview after the Saints’ disappointing 26–20 playoff loss to the Minnesota Vikings, Brees told Payton he needed some time to contemplate his future. Emotions were high. Tears were shed. Hugs exchanged. With his contract set to expire that March, it was a good time to take a step back and consider his options.

  During Brees’ month-long period of contemplation, Payton turned into a recruiter. He texted Brees daily. Some of the messages were of support and encouragement. Some lobbied for his return. One of Payton’s texts read, “You know, there’s 500,000 people that are as talented as you in the business world. There might be 10 people as talented as you if you want to get into TV. And then probably two or three if you want to play quarterback in the world.”

  If it were up to Brees’ competitive side, the decision would have been simple. But it was much more complicated than that. Things change when you reach 40, especially with a growing family in tow. Priorities recalibrate. Life views alter.

  At this stage of his life, Brees had myriad considerations to ponder—first and foremost, his family. How much longer could he ask them to sacrifice for his career? How much longer could he and Brittany divide the kids between schools in New Orleans and Del Mar? Then there was the question of his health. He missed only six games because of injury in 14 years with the Saints. But how long would this game of Russian roulette last in a league where the defenders grow bigger, stronger, and faster each year?