NEW ORLEANS — It is easy to think the worst humbling of Sean Payton’s career came six years ago, when the Bountygate scandal erupted and he was suspended for a year, exiled to Dallas to coach his son’s football team. And to listen to Payton now — the defiance, the supreme self-confidence — it is easy to see how that affected him.
He takes great delight in being a marionette master now, going so far this past week as to coach up fans of his Saints, who will pack the Superdome tight on Sunday with the NFC championship on the line against the Rams.