Sean Payton

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Sean Payton (born December 29, 1963 in San Mateo, CA) is the head coach of the New Orleans Saints. He was the quarterbacks coach and later assistant head coach of the Dallas Cowboys until being hired by the Saints on January 17, 2006. Payton was raised in Naperville, Illinois. He and his wife, Beth, have a daughter, Meghan (3/21/97), and a son, Connor Thomas (5/31/00). Sean attended Naperville Central High School in Naperville, starting as quarterback his senior year before graduating in 1981. He then had a successful career playing quarterback at Eastern Illinois University, where the offense he lead was dubbed Eastern Airlines as it generated as many passing yards per game as any college team in history. In 1987, he played quarterback for the Chicago Bruisers during the inaugural season of the Arena Football League. He was also a member of the Chicago Bears squad of replacement players during the 1987 NFL players strike. In 1988, he played in the United Kingdom for the Leicester Panthers. After that, he began his coaching career. During his time as offensive coordinator with the New York Giants, he was known for locking himself in the stadium and sleeping on the couches while studying plays on off-days.

[edit] Coaching Jobs

San Diego State (Graduate Assistant), 1988-89
Indiana State, 1990-91
San Diego State, 1992-93
Miami (Ohio) (Co-Offensive Coordinator/QB Coach), 1994-95
Illinois (Quarterbacks Coach), 1996
Philadelphia Eagles (Quarterbacks Coach), 1997-98
New York Giants (Quarterbacks Coach in 99; Offensive Coordinator 2000-02), 1999-2002
Dallas Cowboys (Asst. Head Coach/Quarterbacks 2003-04; Asst. Head Coach/Passing Game Coordinator 2005), 2003-05
New Orleans Saints 2006-Current

[edit] Trivia

In 2000, Sean Payton was promoted to the role of offensive coordinator for the Giants. During the 2002 season, after several poor showings by the Giants' offense, Payton's role in play-calling was taken over by then head-coach Jim Fassel; under Fassel the offense improved and propelled the team to a wild-card playoff berth. While Payton was still ostensibly in charge of the offense, his role in the team was clearly diminished and had he not been hired away by the Cowboys, he would have likely been fired.

On the night before the 2006 NFL Draft, Sean Payton was dining when he had the news that the Houston Texans (who owned the first pick) had passed on running back Reggie Bush and had already agreed to terms with Mario Williams, leaving the Saints able to snag Bush with the #2 pick. "The news came between minestrone and redfish," he said. Payton then started drawing up plays with Bush and Deuce McAllister in the backfield.

With back to back road wins over Cleveland and Green Bay to start his career, Sean Payton became the first head coach of the New Orleans Saints to win his first two games. (Note: Jim Mora started the 1993 season out with a 5-0 record but the Saints went 3-8 the rest of the way to end the year with an 8-8 record. Payton is the first Saints coach to win his first three games in his first season, but Mora is the only Saints coach to start any season out with a 5-0 record). The Saints are leading the division with a 6-3 record.

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Preceded by: Jim Haslett	New Orleans Saints Head Coach 2006-	Succeeded by: Incumbent

New Orleans Saints Head Coaches
Fears • Roberts • North • Hefferle • Stram • D. Nolan • Stanfel • B. Phillips • W. Phillips • Mora Sr. • Venturi • Ditka • Haslett • Payton

Current National Football League head coaches
Belichick • Billick • Childress • Coughlin • Cowher • Crennel • Del Rio • Dungy • Edwards • Fisher • Fox • Gibbs • Green • Gruden • Holmgren • Jauron • Kubiak • Lewis • Linehan • Mangini • McCarthy • Marinelli • Mora • Nolan • Parcells • Payton • Reid • Saban • Schottenheimer • Shanahan • Shell • Smith