Sean Payton is the subject of the Netflix movie "Home Team" which chronicles the coach's year off from football in 2012, after an NFL suspension for Bountygate. The project is shooting at stadiums all over New Orleans. Great quotes are the spice of a story.
Like a good seasoning or hot sauce, they often provide just the right kick. As journalists, we’re always mining for good comments to help illustrate our stories. And over the years, I’ve learned that you never know where a good one will come from.
Or when. Week 4 of my documents the best and most memorable quotes from Saints players and coaches during my quarter century of covering the team. They might not be the most famous quotes, but they’re the ones that have stuck like a burr in my mental socks.
Where some of these lists have been difficult to compile, this one was easy. In fact, I could have listed a dozen more. Here’s my best five: I was interviewing Campbell for my book “Payton and Brees” and asked him about the Saints offense and why it was so historically effective.
In his own inimitable way, the then-Saints tight ends coach delivered a beauty of a quote. Since taking over as the head coach of the Detroit Lions, Campbell has proven to be one of the NFL’s top quote machines. Best of all, he rarely leans on clichés.
That’s how the Saints backup defensive end described Matthew Stafford, when asked by reporters about the challenge the Detroit Lions rookie quarterback faced in making his NFL debut against the Saints in the infamous Superdome in the 2009 season opener. The quote merited an all-caps, World War III-worthy headline in the next day’s Times-Picayune, which drew the ire of Sean Payton. The Saints head coach blasted me the next day over the phone for supplying what he thought was bulletin-board material to the Lions.
He compared the Times-Pic to the National Enquirer. Five days later, the Saints somehow overcame the egregious transgression to defeat the Lions 45-27, intercepting Stafford three times and holding him to a 27.4 passer rating.
Fresh meat, indeed. Granted, House is biased. He was Drew Brees’ personal throwing and performance coach for most of his NFL career.
But he also worked extensively with several other NFL quarterbacks, including Tom Brady. So when the former Major League Baseball pitcher says Brees is the best to ever throw a football, it’s noteworthy. And he perfectly described Brees' brilliance.
Another "meat" quote! If the Saints’ gut-wrenching 48-46 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in 2019 wasn’t bad enough, Payton had to hear about his game management later that night at his local grocery store. The butcher at Whole Foods second-guessed his decision to attempt a two-point conversion early in the game. Taysom Hill was stopped for a loss on the play, and those two points ultimately proved costly for the Saints.
Payton told the story to WWL radio a day later. "I certainly understand the fans asking questions," Payton said. “I got the guy at frickin' Whole Foods asking me about the two-point play.
I looked at him, the guy in the meat section, and I said, 'Hey, your steaks don't look too good right now. Worry about your frickin' meat.’ ” Classic Payton.
The locker room largely had emptied by the time I reached it on Sept. 25, 2006, after filing my deadline story. But the man of the hour was still there, holding court at his locker with a handful of reporters about the big play he’d made a few hours earlier in a 20-3 win against the Atlanta Falcons.
Gleason was the perfect person to have blocked the punt, because he understood and appreciated exactly what that night meant to New Orleanians and was able to put into perspective what he’d accomplished. That’s not easy to do for players coming out of the heat of battle. But Gleason, , was no ordinary player.
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