Saints Slam the Rams: The Good, Bad, and FANTASTIC
By Bob Rose
THE FANTASTIC: SEAN PAYTON’S REVENGE
Make no mistake about it, this game meant much more to Sean Payton then the average regular season game.
Perhaps 8 million more reasons, the approximate salary that Coach Payton lost during his 2012 suspension as a result of the “Bountygate” scandal.
Rams defensive coordinator Gregg Williams was the New Orleans defensive coordinator during their 2009 Super Bowl season of course, and was a key part of the bounty investigation that eventually indicted Payton.
Williams’ biased testimony against Payton and the Saints was only a part of an unceremonious split between the two.
In their first match up since the split, it was an extra “fired-up” Payton that had every intention of exacting a bit of football “revenge” against his former employee.
Obviously each man downplayed the role their relationship played in the game. The sideline to sideline stare-downs between the two, and numerous emotional fist pumps by Payton told a far different story; as in: Don’t EVER betray the Saints family…..