INDIANAPOLIS — Despite his recent hiring as new head coach of the New Orleans Saints, former Eastern Illinois quarterback Sean Payton has not been one to forget his roots.
An All-America playing career at EIU, followed by college coaching career that got its start at Indiana State, has helped Payton reach the heights of his profession. When he was hired by the Saints last month, he became the third Eastern Illinois graduate to become a head coach in the NFL — joining Denver’s Mike Shanahan and Minnesota’s Brad Childress.
”It’s interesting and kind of unique. It’s certainly a credit a little bit to the football tradition there at Eastern,” Payton said during an exclusive interview Friday at the National Football Scouting Combine. “It started in the mid-1970s and all of a sudden it gravitated to a lot of people going there to play football or having an interest in football.
“I think that translated into a lot of guys that ended up coaching football. In the end, if you were recruited there, maybe you were undersized or not big enough, maybe you could play at Eastern. But when it was over with, you knew that you were going to end up getting into coaching. I knew that if I couldn’t play any more, I wanted to coach at a young age. But it is interesting. Three coaches from that school, but I know they’re proud of that.”
After becoming one of the premier passers in Division I-AA, Payton had a brief playing stint in the NFL with the Chicago Bears and with the Arena League’s Chicago Bruisers before accepting a graduate assistant coaching position at San Diego State. His first full-time coaching job came at ISU where he became the Sycamores’ quarterback coach under Dennis Raetz.
In a recent interview, Raetz said that he knew that Payton — who met his wife Beth while at ISU — had the opportunity to be “something special” as a coach. NFL assistant coaching stops with the Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys have helped to bolster that evaluation.
“He’s [Raetz] a guy who has a great ability, and I saw this in the recruiting process, he really could evaluate the player but also the type of person he thought the player was. Dennis had a pretty good handle on the pulse of the team and what it took to win games,” Payton said.
“For me it’s a great compliment because I always thought he was pretty good at evaluating people. He really is the guy that gave me my first full-time job. He gave me a salary, some insurance and a dealer car. He was the guy that hired me that day after Christmas (1989). My experience with Dennis and Indiana State was outstanding and obviously exciting.”
Learning under coaches like Raetz, Jon Gruden, Jim Fassell and Bill Parcells has taught Payton one important lesson that he intends to use with the Saints — be true to yourself.
“The worst thing that I could do is try to be someone other than myself. I’m going to be demanding, I’d like to think detail oriented. I think the little things are awfully important in this game. So many of them are won in the last two or three minutes. I’m going to work extremely hard at it,” he said.
“There’s going to be an X-amount of discipline, detail, and hard work that’s required and that’s been maybe a little bit of my formula up to now. So I don’t anticipate changing a lot of that.”
I I I
n Williams, Brown gone; Brock expected to re-sign — The Indianapolis Colts have reportedly terminated the contracts of defensive tackle Josh Williams and backup quarterback Travis Brown.
Defensive end Raheem Brock, an unrestricted free agent as signed a 5-yaar contract extention with the team. Complete terms of the deal are now known but the agreement was confirmed by Brock’s agent Kevin Pompey on Friday night.
n Doss undergoes surgery — Colts safety Mike Doss recently underwent surgery to repair ligament damage in his right shoulder.
He expects to be ready to go by the time the team is scheduled to report for training camp at Rose-Hulman.
n Combine to leave Indy? — The combine, a staple in Indianapolis for nearly 25 years, may be moving to another city at some point in the near future.
Jeff Foster, executive director of National Football Scouting, said Friday that there is a possibility that the five-day event might end up relocating to a warm-weather site.
“When you are in one place for a long time, sometimes there is tendency to take each other for granted,” Foster admitted. “But we’re still talking [to city officials], so we’ll see what happens down the road.”
Colts
Ex-ISU assistant Payton ready to take Saints higher
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Colts welcome Manusky aboard as defensive coordinator
On Thursday, Indianapolis Colts general manager Ryan Grigson, coach Chuck Pagano and potential No. 1 draft pick Andrew Luck led the parade.
Grigson and Pagano confirmed the hiring of several assistant coaches, including defensive coordinator Greg Manusky, Marwan Maalouf (special teams), Roy Anderson (safeties), Alfredo Roberts (tight ends) and Brandt Boyer (assistant special teams). -
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Back home again in Indiana
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Patriots first to arrive in Indy
Welcome to Super Bowl Week.
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Pagano wants aggressive defense with Colts
When the Colts went looking for a new head coach, a good portion of the team’s fans made it clear that they wanted a departure from the laid-back style of former coaches Tony Dungy and Jim Caldwell.
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Irsay: Manning comments should have stayed in-house
Not only did the Colts introduce new head coach Chuck Pagano during an afternoon press conference, team owner Jim Irsay also made his feelings known about recent comments that quarterback Peyton Manning made.
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Colts go with defensive specialist
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Caldwell can’t survive 2-14 season in Indy
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Colts fire head coach Caldwell
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Colts hire Eagles exec Grigson as GM
The Indianapolis Colts formally announced former Philadelphia director of player personnel Ryan Grigson as the team’s new general manager Wednesday.
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Colts hire Eagles executive Grigson as GM
The Indianapolis Colts have hired Eagles executive Ryan Grigson as their new general manager.
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Irsay: Colts are in 'rebuilding stage'
So are the Indianapolis Colts in a retooling or a rebuilding mode heading into the offseason?
If you ask the players, they would prefer to use the retooling philosophy. In their minds, get some injured players back and the Colts can be right back in the thick of the AFC South title race and once again be a contender for the AFC championship.
Team owner Jim Irsay, though, sees a tougher road ahead. -
Colts give the boot to Polian duo
It didn’t take long for Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay to start making moves with his team.
One day after Irsay’s Colts dropped a 19-13 road decision to Jacksonville, giving Indianapolis a 2-14 record and the No. 1 pick in the 2012 National Football League draft, longtime Colts executive Bill Polian and his son, vice-president/general manager Chris Polian, were both fired.
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Interesting subplots abound in Colts-Jags game
This afternoon’s AFC South matchup between the Indianapolis Colts (2-13) and Jacksonville Jaguars (4-11) is the regular-season finale for both teams.
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Colts players a fan of Murphy's promotion to defensive coordinator
Cohesion. That’s the word the keeps coming up when coach Jim Caldwell and many of the team’s players are asked about the turnaround of the Indianapolis Colts’ defensive unit.
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To win or to lose? For Colts fans, it's not an easy question
With the No. 1 draft pick on the line if the Indianapolis Colts were to lose Sunday at Jacksonville, it’s easy to see why a lot of the team’s fans wouldn’t mind seeing the team fall to the Jaguars.
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Colts’ Freeney to play in seventh Pro Bowl
Despite a team record of 2-13 heading into the final week of the National Football League regular season, there was some good news coming out of the Indianapolis Colts’ West 56th Street facility Tuesday night.
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Colts’ last game not without questions
Are the Indianapolis Colts treating Sunday’s game at Jacksonville as the final game of the season or just the next game on the schedule?
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Colts celebrate second straight division victory
Indianapolis Colts fans finally got a little luck on their side Thursday night at Lucas Oil Stadium.
It may not have been Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, who is expected to the top pick in next spring’s National Football League draft. -
With latest win, Colts provide suspense for 2012 draft position
Now that the Indianapolis Colts have posted two straight wins in their last two games, including Thursday night’s 19-16 victory over AFC South champion Houston, many of the team’s fans find themselves in quite a quandary.
The Colts will take a 2-13 record into next week’s New Year’s Day regular-season finale at Jacksonville. -
Colts face another tough running test
The credit for the Indianapolis Colts’ win over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday can go in a couple different directions.
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Colts taking no risks with injured Manning
Both Bill Polian and Jim Caldwell are looking to the future when it comes to injured quarterback Peyton Manning.
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More wins to come?
With a win finally under their belts, the Indianapolis Colts (1-13) now look forward to two days of intensive work beginning today.
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FINALLY! THEY WON
It was a day of firsts for the Indianapolis Colts.
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Polian hopes to set ‘record straight’
Indianapolis Colts vice chairman Bill Polian didn’t like what he was hearing prior to and during Sunday’s National Football League home game with the Tennessee Titans.
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Polian shares thoughts on QB situation
With the Indianapolis Colts’ chances of clinching the No. 1 pick in the 2012 National Football League draft getting closer with each succeeding loss, talk among fans and team observers invariably goes to the possibility of the team selecting Stanford junior quarterback Andrew Luck.
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Colts prepared for Hasselbeck or Locker
The Indianapolis Colts defense is preparing to face a two-pronged offensive attack when the Tennessee Titans visit Lucas Oil Stadium Sunday.
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Colts could still become spoiler
Time is running short for the 2011 Indianapolis Colts.
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Colts have three more chances to win
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