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Below is an excerpt from Peter King's visit to Saints training camp....
Regarding Payton, Brees said: "Even though he's not here physically, I hear his voice in my head every day.''
"How will it affect this team?' I asked.
"I don't know. I think about it a lot. The hard thing is, your head coach (snaps his fingers) is gone like that. He's just gone. We're very familiar with coach Vitt, very comfortable, and then he's gone for the first six weeks. You take the two strongest presences in the building and remove them, and it's like taking the president and vice president away from government. You had better have a pretty strong Congress, then.
"Our mentality is this: Move on. Find a way. We will. The teachings from your parents never leave you, and eventually you're going to leave them, but you're going to carry those teachings with you.''
Brees and I talked for 45 minutes or so about the severe league sanctions against the team, the 77 games commissioner Roger Goodell banned players, coaches and the general manager, Mickey Loomis. It's clear he's angry about the severity of the suspensions. He is angry that Payton and Loomis were summoned to the league office last winter before the league announced the existence of the bounty/pay-for-performance scandal and not told how much the league had on the Saints before they were questioned. (I'm not sure that matters, but he's not the only Saint who feels the league didn't share enough information with Saints officials before the February interrogations.) Brees has spoken about the subject at length in the past few weeks, but he said a couple of things I hadn't heard:
• On the 16-game Payton suspension: "I was utterly shocked. Shocked. And the way the suspension works -- it's like, You're cut off right now. We [the NFL] are going to tell you who you can and cannot talk to over the next year. [Payton is forbidden from talking to Saints players or front-office members.] That is completely ridiculous.''
• On NFL players' attitudes to Goodell: Brees got quiet and thought for a moment, then said: "Nobody trusts him. Nobody trusts him. I'm not talking about a DUI, or using a gun in a strip club, which are pretty clear violations. I think there're too many times where the league has come to its decision in a case before calling a guy in, and the interview is just a façade. I think now if a guy has to come in to talk to Roger, he'll be very hesitant because he'll think the conclusion has already been reached.''
Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/w ... z227YKn7JN
Regarding Payton, Brees said: "Even though he's not here physically, I hear his voice in my head every day.''
"How will it affect this team?' I asked.
"I don't know. I think about it a lot. The hard thing is, your head coach (snaps his fingers) is gone like that. He's just gone. We're very familiar with coach Vitt, very comfortable, and then he's gone for the first six weeks. You take the two strongest presences in the building and remove them, and it's like taking the president and vice president away from government. You had better have a pretty strong Congress, then.
"Our mentality is this: Move on. Find a way. We will. The teachings from your parents never leave you, and eventually you're going to leave them, but you're going to carry those teachings with you.''
Brees and I talked for 45 minutes or so about the severe league sanctions against the team, the 77 games commissioner Roger Goodell banned players, coaches and the general manager, Mickey Loomis. It's clear he's angry about the severity of the suspensions. He is angry that Payton and Loomis were summoned to the league office last winter before the league announced the existence of the bounty/pay-for-performance scandal and not told how much the league had on the Saints before they were questioned. (I'm not sure that matters, but he's not the only Saint who feels the league didn't share enough information with Saints officials before the February interrogations.) Brees has spoken about the subject at length in the past few weeks, but he said a couple of things I hadn't heard:
• On the 16-game Payton suspension: "I was utterly shocked. Shocked. And the way the suspension works -- it's like, You're cut off right now. We [the NFL] are going to tell you who you can and cannot talk to over the next year. [Payton is forbidden from talking to Saints players or front-office members.] That is completely ridiculous.''
• On NFL players' attitudes to Goodell: Brees got quiet and thought for a moment, then said: "Nobody trusts him. Nobody trusts him. I'm not talking about a DUI, or using a gun in a strip club, which are pretty clear violations. I think there're too many times where the league has come to its decision in a case before calling a guy in, and the interview is just a façade. I think now if a guy has to come in to talk to Roger, he'll be very hesitant because he'll think the conclusion has already been reached.''
Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/w ... z227YKn7JN
