Sean Payton

Sean Payton

Patrick Sean Payton (born December 29, 1963) is an American Football head coach for the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League. Payton was a quarterback at Naperville Central High School and Eastern Illinois University and played professionally in 1987 and 1988. He began his coaching career as offensive assistant for San Diego State University and had several assistant coaching positions in collegiate and NFL teams before being named as the 10th full-time coach in Saints history in 2006.

Under Payton, the New Orleans Saints made the 2006 NFL playoffs after a 3–13 season in 2005, and Payton won the AP NFL Coach of the Year Award because of this effort. Following the 2009 season, the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl championship. March 21, 2012, Payton was suspended for the entire 2012 NFL season, originally set to take effect April 1, 2012, as a result of his alleged involvement in the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, under which "bounties" were allegedly paid for contact that would "knock out" targeted players on opposing teams. Payton has denied that any program encouraging Saints players to injure opposing players ever existed, even though the NFL claims their evidence proves otherwise. Assistant coach Joe Vitt stated "We had a pay to perform program, just like many NFL teams do, but there was never a bounty program, we didn't ever encourage a pay-to-injure program. That's just not true. We never crossed the line." Payton filed an appeal of his suspension with the league the Friday before it was set to take effect. On April 9, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (the same individual who handed down the suspension) denied his appeal; his suspension began on April 16. Goodell reinstated Payton on January 22, 2013.

Payton is under contract with the Saints at least until the end of the 2017 season. A previously agreed extension of his contract through 2015 was voided by the NFL, leaving his status after 2012 unclear, although Payton has said that he intends to return to the Saints. He will return as the Saints head coach for the 2013 season under a five year contract making him the highest paid coach in the history of the NFL.