Suspended Saints head coach Sean Payton doesn’t believe for a minute that General Manager Mickey Loomis eavesdropped on opposing coaches by tampering with communications devices at the Superdome.
Payton, who is banished from the NFL until after the Super Bowl for failing to stop the team’s bounty program, said today that he thinks it’s inconceivable that Loomis would have listened in on opposing coaches. ESPN reported this week that Loomis had the ability to hear opposing coaches’ discussions during games at the Superdome from 2002 to 2004. Payton, who became the Saints’ head coach in 2006, was one of the coaches who could have been a victim of the eavesdropping during his time as an assistant with the Cowboys. But Payton thinks the whole report is ridiculous.
“I think it’s hogwash,” Payton told Larry Holder of CBS Sports. “Obviously, I wasn’t here, but I know Mickey Loomis well enough and I would consider him a close friend and professionally one of the best general managers.”
Payton said the start of his suspension has been difficult, but he’s looking forward to spending more time with his kids and coaching his 12-year-old son’s football team.
“I think that you go through the initial week and that’s challenging and then you kind of move forward,” Payton said. “That’s kind of happened with me. There’s a lot of things I’m looking forward to do. A lot of that starts with your own children and the time that normally you don’t have. I’ll have a lot more of it.”
Payton said he may work on television this season if he can find a TV gig in which he is “still paying attention to the game, but at the same time really trying to dive into two young children that are growing up quickly.”